Gentle Reader,

WHAT IS THE KOSMOS?

Communion and friendship and orderliness and temperance and justice bind together heaven and earth and gods and men; this universe is, therefore, called KOSMOS, or order; not disorder or misrule (Gorgia 508 Plato).

Regarding the above concept of KOSMOS, consider the following by  Dr. E. W. Bullinger:

"... KOSMOS denotes the order of the world, the ordered universe, the ordered entirety of God's creation, but considered as separated from God. Then, the abode of humanity, or that order of things in which humanity moves, or of which man is the centre; then, mankind as it manifests itself in and through such an order; then, that order of things which, in consequence of and since the Fall, is alienated from God, as manifested in and through the human race." (P. 901, Critical Lexicon. and Concordance).

John, in his Gospel (3:16), says, "For God so loved the KOSMOS … " or (3:17) says, "For God sent not His Son into the KOSMOS to condemn the KOSMOS but that the KOSMOS through Him might be saved." In John's first Epistle (1 John 2:15) John sees that there is in this KOSMOS a contrary ORDER to God's law of love as he so well expresses it ... a KOSMOS that is a bringer of CHAOS,"... love not the KOSMOS, neither the things that are in the KOSMOS. If any man love the KOSMOS, the love of The Father is not in him," This is no conflict with the statement that God loves the KOSMOS and seeks its redemption, since John goes on to define his statement in 1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the KOSMOS, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, IS NOT OF THE FATHER, but is of the KOSMOS." Within God's there is a love and loveliness that honors Him and all it touches, that makes man more Christ-like and noble.

Tragically, there is another selfish love that only takes but does not give, that tears down, destroys instead of building up. It too is a SYSTEM, a KOSMOS, social, political, ethical and religious, addressing itself to man's selfish pride -- two systems, two rulers, two laws.

Defining the Word, KOSMOS, Its Origins

As we look at this word, KOSMOS, we discover that it is already a very familiar word. We hear it in the word COSMETIC, that ability to beautify the body. This is from the Greek, KOSMETIKOS (skilled in arranging) from KOSMETOS, (well-ordered), from KOSMEIN (to arrange, order), from KOSMOS (order). The ancient Greeks used this word in that homey sense -- an ornament, decoration, embellishment, dress, especially of women but also of men and horses. They spoke of olive-wreath, of the ornamentation of speech, of the, sweet song of praise, of poets and poems -- all under this name. So it should not be surprising to us to first find this word in Matt. 12:44 of a house that had been furnished (garnished, A.V.) -- an empty house, a house without a Master-waiting, a picture of Israel, surely. After her return from captivity, she no longer em-braced the unclean idols of paganism; she cleaned up her house according to the letter of the law. No fault could be found with her morality, her house was well ordered, but it was empty of that essential PRESENCE that gives meaning to it all.

In Matt. 25:7 we hear the word again in the "trimming of lamps." These were ceremonial torches to be raised on high upon the arrival of the bridegroom, and thereafter to escort the bridegroom to the marriage. This word was used (Matt. 23:29) of the decorating of tombs, of buildings (Lk. 21:5) and of persons (1 Tim. 2:9).

Adorn one's self in orderly apparel is what the apostle is really saying. This is to compliment the ORDERLY BEHAVIOR of 1 Tim. 3:2, and the inner beauty or cosmetics of the spirit of 1 Peter 3:3-5. It is in this last light that we read Titus 2:10, "that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." It is not difficult to realize that what we are and how we act will dramatize the doctrine of our Savior-God, make it attractive and appealing, or thrust others from it. In this, each of us is a micro-kosmos of what we believe -- an ADORNMENT for good or ill. We are the guise in which the doctrine of God our Savior is presented to others. So, should we not be an ADORNMENT that casts the best possible light upon the Christ we teach? Epictetus (Enchirid. cap. 62), states, in effect, that a woman was nothing unless she was properly ARRANGED. May the beauty of Christ clothe us as a garment.

 We are connected Gentle reader, to the earth, the Kosmos (universe and to our creator, more on that later) and to each other. When we hurt one another then we are hurting ourselves... To be continued...

 Love, Denis