Passion
Passion,
or "strong emotion" or "suffering" is not
a bad word in the Bible, as some would like to believe. The Death
of Christ on the cross is referred to as the "Passion of
Christ." In John 3:16 God's love for the world can be viewed
as the passion of God. And certainly the Song of Songs is filled
with passion between lovers, even though the word is never used.
“Passion”
is derived from Latin passio, which in turn is derived
from the verb patior, with the root pat.
Here
is where the actual word "passion" appears in scripture:
(1)
“Suffer,” and in this sense “passion”
is used in Acts 1:3, “to whom he also showed himself alive
after his passion.” This translation is a paraphrase (Greek:
“after he had suffered”). This is the only case in the
King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)
where “passion” has this meaning, and it can be so used
in modern English only when referring (as here) to the sufferings
of Christ (compare “Passion play”).
(2)
“Suffering,” when applied to the mind, came to
denote the state that is controlled by some emotion, and so “passion”
was applied to the emotion itself. This is the meaning of the
word in Acts 14:15, “people of like passions,” and Jas
5:17, “a man of like passions.” The Revised Version
margin “of like nature” gives the meaning exactly: “men
with the same emotions as we.”
(3)
“Strong emotion,” and this is the normal force
of “passion” in modern English. There are three occurrences:
Rom 1:26; Col 3:5; 1 Thess 4:5.
It
is used also in Rom 7:5 and in Gal 5:24.
In Col 3:5 only does “passion” stand as an isolated
term. The context here perhaps gives the word a slight sexual
reference, but this must not be overstressed; the warning
probably includes any violent over-emotion that robs a man of
his self-control.
PASSION
IS NOT SIN.
Like most everything else, it is how we use it. For good or for
evil. May God help us understand the difference.
THE
FAMOUS BIBLE PASSAGE ON LOVE:
