Ginomai – Becoming

“𝐷𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑒𝑥ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡. 𝑊𝑒 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑤.” (1 Corinthians 4:13)

At first, this verse seems very negative—being called offscouring and scum! Paul reveals to the Corinthians that they have become “the offscouring of the world” to the religious Jews and worldly Greeks because they don’t share the same value or nature—and that is a good thing. The Corinthian believers were struggling with their old worldly lives and didn’t realize that their current ways of living caused many divisions. But Paul reminds them of the truth of who they—and we—are.

From the worldly point of view, we are “the offscouring” because basically everything that is in the world—its nature, its value—has nothing to do with us; we have nothing to do with the world, so the world doesn’t want us. Nobody would call themselves the offscouring of the world unless they realized they were utterly useless to the world. From that point of view, as a believer, it is a very positive statement, not a negative one.

There is an important verb hiding in this verse that gives an intrinsic view of Paul’s writing to the Corinthians: “have become” or, in the original Greek, 𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖. 𝐺𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖 can be interpreted as “having been made,” “assembled,” or “come into existence.” This word “ginomai” is referring to something in nature: we have been changed, made into a new constitution, into a new being, into a new existence, into a good position—becoming.

𝐺𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖 also has the English root called “gen,”or “generate.” Do you know what that means? Something can be “gen”-erated. This is really the meaning: we have 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒. So the phrase “have become” in the verse means we have been assembled, we have been made—generated into a new existence, into a new position, into a new living with God’s very nature, allowing us to enter into the allotted inheritance. 𝐺𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖, that 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔, happens in us to make us useless to the world, so that we are only useful for His specific purpose, which is to enter into that inheritance and be His church today. Suddenly you have been made into a being. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒—𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ. Church, arise! Church, assemble! We are the ones generated, made and assembled as His divine production with a divine position, purpose and nature.

(Above are notes of fellowship taken from gatherings on 5/1/2020 & 5/3/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)