To Do in Such a Way…

A while back, I was studying through the book of Acts again, and I noticed that in verse 1, the word translated as “to do” was set apart as a key word. At first glance, I thought ‘how much more can there be to say about a word that means to do?’ With my curiosity piqued, I checked out the word’s meaning in the Greek Lexicon in the back of the Bible. First, I will share the passage from Acts 1:1. Second, I will share the expanded definition of this Greek word. Lastly, I will offer my take-away from it.

The Passage

“The former treatise have I made, ^G4160 O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do ^G4160 and teach,” ²

The Meaning of poieo Greek #4160

In my aforementioned study Bible, this is the relevant part of the definition for poieo:
“may well refer to the doing once and for all, the producing and bringing forth something which when produced, has an independent existence of its own.”

By way of a paraphrase, this word means to do something in such a way that it takes on a life of its own. Upon reading that, and contemplating all that Jesus ‘did’ and how all He did truly took on a life of its own…my mind was overwhelmed with the implications of that. In just 3 +/- short years of ministry life, plus His death and resurrection, Jesus created something that truly took on a life of its own–the Church and the Christian Faith. 2,000 years later…it is still alive.

Our Take-Aways

1. Jesus did not perform “dead-works.” He did not just stay busy doing “good deeds.” Everything He did was purposefully directed to take on a life of its own. All His efforts were intentionally focused on doing the Father’s will and establishing His Kingdom. What if each of us adopted the same mentality? What if we as individuals, families, churches, ministries, and denominations used this poieo test for deciding what actions or direction we should take? What if we used this test to decide how should we minister to those around us? What if…the test for all we do in churches and as individual believers, was decided by the answer to this question, ‘If I do this, will it take on a life of its own that will bring glory to God and lead others to the foot of the cross?‘ If not, maybe we should re-think it.
   
2. I think the most basic application of this is in our command to make disciples. Making a ‘convert,’ someone just saying a prayer, I think falls short of this. We should train other believers as disciples in such a way, that they will be able to survive, thrive, and reproduce (spiritually speaking as in making other disciples) without us. This ministry starts with our family first. We should make sure that long after we are gone that our spouses, children, siblings, etc., have the depth and breadth of faith to survive whatever may come their way. Again…not to just make converts or church-goers out of them…but true disciples.
   
3. A final take-away for me was…deep self-assessment. This challenge from a seemingly insignificant word caused me to reevaluate all that I had done in family and ministry. In retrospect, I know that much of my past efforts were not of the variety that gave life to something or someone else. To be painfully transparent, I realized that much of my past ministry efforts were not focused on building God’s Kingdom but rather on a proverbial personal Tower of Babel. Through this process, I had realized the reason that many of my efforts had simply flamed out and died was because I was more concentrated on building my ministry and not the Kingdom of God. I believe it was unintentional, but I should have caught it sooner. The Lord is not concerned with building up recognition for people, prosperity for churches, or fame of ministries. He is focused on His name being glorified and lifted up so that all others may be drawn unto Him.

Poieo — all we do and teach, should be done in a such a way, so that when we are done…it takes on a life of its own that brings Glory to God.