In this the love of God has been revealed among us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.. – 1 John 4:9 BSB

Warrior;
If we really want to know something, then it helps to know where it came from. The environment, the context of something, helps with understanding that thing. When we meet the person, we might want to spend our lives with, we learn as much as we can about where “they are coming from”. Not just their history, but their point of view, their Map of reality. You want to know where they ARE FROM. Our belief systems, loosely called our ‘Map of Reality’, is constructed in our past and it is the context for everything we believe and thus how we respond. There are words that mean deeper, above, beyond- they mean, MORE. Words like ‘EPI’ and ‘META’. The Greek word “meta” refers to something “above, beyond, or about” something else; Transcending, encompassing; Pertaining to a level above or beyond; reflexive or recursive; about itself or about other things of the same type. As a relational term meta speaks about a thought about a thought, a feeling about a feeling. In meta-communication we communicate about our communications. In meta-linguistics, we use and/or develop language so we can talk about our language. If you really want to KNOW something, then it takes us going beyond, or deeper to truly understand the context of the communication, and the soil from which it was created and developed. Understanding the environment of the world in which the language of our Rabbi Jesus came from, it will allow us to understand the original language- the actual words spoken and written not some loose translation, or transliteration. People like John Walton and Hebrew Scholar Michael Heiser are proponents of understanding and using Ancient Near East (ANE) cultures that begat the Israelites and their languages of Hebrew and Aramaic- even Greek; languages that our Bible was originally written in. By understanding the context of the TIME and the CULTURE from which our Biblical writings, and their writers comes from, this allows for a purer understanding of the Word of God, from God. It is also written: By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. (Hebrews 11:17) What about Ishmael and the Sons of Ketura?

Leader, the first step in studying the Word is to decide! Are you going to have Faith and believe every word in the Bible or are you going to rip out the parts you don’t understand? The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Hear the Word of the Lord; All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21) If Peter and Paul believed this about the Word of God, shouldn’t we? Did we just read an error in the Bible? In Hebrews it says that Isaac was the only BEGOTTEN son of Abraham. That is not true. We also read in today’s verse that Jesus is God’s ONLY BEGOTTEN SON…then what do we do with these verses: Romans 8:29- For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Colossians 1:15,18- He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. There is no error in the Bible, it is understanding the Masoretic Text and the origin of the original WORD! From the desiring god website; The Greek word translated by this phrase is monogenes. It doesn’t mean “only begotten” in some sort of “birthing” sense. The confusion extends from an old misunderstanding of the root of the Greek word. For years monogenes was thought to have derived from two Greek terms, monos (“only”) and gennao (“to beget, bear”). Greek scholars later discovered that the second part of the word monogenes does not come from the Greek verb gennao, but rather from the noun genos (“class, kind”). The term literally means “one of a kind” or “unique” without connotation of created origin.

Conduit, How could Jesus be the only divine son when there were others? See Job 38:7. “Only begotten” is an unfortunately confusing translation, especially to modern ears. Not only does the translation “only begotten” seem to contradict the obvious statements in the Old Testament about other sons of God, it implies that there was a time when the Son did not exist—that he had a beginning. Look at the Amplified Bible’s translation of the word, monogenes in our 1 John verse; By this the love of God was displayed in us, in that God has sent His [One and] only begotten Son [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind] into the world so that we might live through Him. Jesus is the UNIQUE Son of God, in a class all unto His own, there is NO OTHER like Him! If there are other divine sons of God, what do we make of the description of Jesus as the “only begotten” son of God (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). This is why we STUDY the Word. We RUMINATE in the WORD. We are like a sommelier; swirling, and swishing, sniffing, and ruminating on what The Word says, what it meant when it was said, what was the context then, and what is it now. Here is the GOOD NEWS from understanding what THE WORD meant that was actually written or spoken and what that understanding is– Jesus is the Son of the Covenant, the Substance of the Son of the Promise. And we are called to be as HE IS. We too are UNIQUE. We have unique fingerprints and unique DNA. We have unique trauma, and we have unique drama. We have Unique Ability, and we have Unique Purpose. This life that we live now we are called to use our UNIQUENESS for God’s glory. Quit working to be like everyone else and be the ONLY BEGOTTEN son\daughter of God. This is God’s calling on your life. As Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan says, “”Given that Unique Ability is at the core of who you are and thus highly personal, it requires extreme commitment and courage to connect with, develop, and utilize your Unique Ability. If it doesn’t feel like you’re radically exposing yourself, then it’s not Unique Ability. If it’s not transforming you rapidly, it’s not Unique Ability”. Ephesians 2:10 in the Amplified Bible says this; For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]. This is, THE GOOD FIGHT!