Virtue, continued...

Katie got me thinking when she said she'd done a study on the word 'virtue' after David and I got married. I remember that Mr. Asbill said he wasn't going to tell me the definition of virtue because he "didn't look it up!" I guess that means I ought to have looked it up myself as soon as I could. Regrettably, I didn't do it until now.

There are a 3 different places that the word "virtuous" is used in the Bible. They are all in the Old Testament, and interestingly enough, each time describes a woman. I never knew that before! Anyway, the definition of "virtuous" is from the Hebrew chayil, which means: "...probably a force, whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength: able, activity..." (Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries)

I found this to be quite interesting, because I always thought of virtuous in the sense of moral goodness and Godly character. The Scripture that comes to mind just now is James 2: 17-18:

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."

Don't get me wrong; moral goodness and Godly character are a good thing to have! What I'm getting at is that virtue needs to be put to action, or like the Scripture says, it's dead. It's not going to be a profit or a blessing to anyone. The virtuous woman in Prov. 31 is definitely one who is walking out the virtue that is inside of her.

The word virtue is found six times, and all in the New Testament. I found two different definitions. The first is what I was talking about in my earlier post, about Jesus and the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of His garment and was healed.

Mark 5:30 says,
"And Jesus, immediately knowing within Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press [of the crowd] and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' " (brackets mine)

This word virtue is found in Mark 5:30, Luke 6:19 and 8:46. It's from the Greek dunamis, which means:

"force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power... ability, abundance...miracle(s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work. " (Strong's)

So if we were to lay our hands on someone and pray and they were healed, we know this:

2Cor. 4:7 "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." (Italics mine). Power in this verse is the same dunamis in the above verses.

If we have this virtue, this power, in us, it's not from any good thing that comes out of us, our humanity - God gets all the glory. He is the one who does the work; we are only the vessels He works through. We just need to be willing and obedient to Him, being led by His Spirit and having a solid foundation in His Word.

I think I'll save the last definition of virtue for next time. This is getting a little long...

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear back from you!
KW