Pearls of the Word

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O twisted generation!

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

"Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse [diastrepho] generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear [anechomai] with you?" (Matthew 17:17).

The Greek verb diastrepho means to twist, to pervert, to divert, and the verb anechomai means to stand straight, to stand firm, to stand steadfastly. Over three years, Jesus had taught His disciples to be steadfast in their faith and truth, but one saw no fruits in their lives, so He called them "twisted generation".

The apostle Peter later explained in his Letters that untaught and unstable people who twist [strebloo is derived from strepho] the meaning of the Scriptures are on the way to perdition (2 Peter 3:16). Jesus ascended to the Father, but He left us His Word so that it acts in us as a plumbline and a level. If we build our lives on Jesus the Cornerstone and our foundations with the Word of God, then everything which was twisted will be made straight.