Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-084 (Theology)

Living Words of the New Testament, by Rev Dr Leon Morris

SAINT

We generally think of saint as a very righteous person. We use the word of outstanding people like say ‘Saint Paul’ or ‘Saint John’. Or we say of someone whom we think to be a very good person, ‘He is a saint.’ But this is not the way the term is used in the New Testament. In fact the word ‘saint’ is never used in the New Testament of any one person. It is used in the plural for Christians generally; they are ‘the saints’, but on no occasion is one of them singled out for mention as ‘a saint’.

The basic idea in the word we translate as ‘saint’ or ‘holy’ (the one Greek word conveys both ideas) is that of separation. It was used when anything was set apart for use in the worship of God. For example Aaron had ‘holy garments’ (Exod. 28:2). There was nothing particularly righteous about them; they were robes he would use when ministering in the tabernacle, but not when he was going about his ordinary daily life. Similarly ‘holy oil’ (Exod. 30:25) was oil used in the service of God, the ‘holy place’ (Lev. 10:13) was a place set apart for God, ‘holy things’ (Num. 4:15) meant anything that was detached from the ordinary usage of life and used only in the worship of God. A ‘holy people’ was a people who belonged to God in a special way.

The New Testament does not speak of things as holy (there is no equivalent of the temple with all its ritual). But it does speak of those who are saved as belonging to God. We are ‘the saints’ (Rom. 16:2; Phil. 1:1.) We are ‘set apart’ for God; we belong to God in a very special way. It follows that we must live in a way that befits our new status and that is why the word comes to have a meaning like ‘very righteous’. But the really important thing is that we are God’s own. He bought us with the blood of Christ. We should then live as those who belong to God.

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Rev Dr Leon Morris is an internationally recognised New Testament scholar, theologian and author, from Melbourne Australia.

This feature series of ‘Living Words of the New Testament’ appeared in ‘Daily Notes’, published by Scripture Union.