2019 Youth Special- ‘Strengthening of the inner man’

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

Greetings to you brothers and sisters; in the name of Jesus Christ. It is a joy to reach out to you in this new year.

Today I have an interesting and a blessed word to share to you. It’s the word “new”. In English we have some synonyms for the word “new”. However Greek has 2 common words for new. “Kainos” and “Neos”

“Neos” refers to new in reference to time (like newly created, with reference to its age) and something that is prospective.

In English usage, My shoes are torn so I am going to get a new (Neos) pair of shoes. This statement would imply that I am going to get a pair of shoes, that is exactly a replica of the ones that was torn but a new one.  So “neos” refers to something new but equal to what we originally had.

“Kainos” refers to a new thing, far superior, something totally unheard of before, something different. The Vine dictionary gives us this meaning for Kainos “new as to form or quality, of a different nature from what is contrasted as old.” Kainos means to contrast what previously existed. Kainos supplants and overshadows the old.

And it is this “Kainos” that Apostle Paul and Apostle John refer to in their letters.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new (Kainos) creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Ephesians 2:15 “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new (Kainos) man, so making peace”

Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new (Kainos) heaven and a new (Kainos) earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more.

Coming back to our initial verse, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed (anakainos) day by day.

This does not talk about an improved version of our former selves.

But a radical, stunningly new, something that no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – that kind of new.

And beloved in Christ, this is what our God is going to do to your inner man this new year.

Not self-improvement, not a new-year resolution to hit the gym or to break that addiction, but a Kainos new that is so far superior that only God can conceive in his omniscient wisdom and endless love.

..For if anyone is in Christ, he is a Kainos creation. He will transform you like Himself this year.

Have a blessed Kainos year.

Bro Gideon Paul Rufus

God’s love missions family