Part 2 - The First Level of Life - Biological Life
| This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called The Life That is Real Life. |
Part 2 - The First Level of Life - Biological Life
What applies to reality in general must also apply to life. The life that is real life must be one that endures through all time. This is so because eternal life is a component of true (or eternal) existence. As it turns out, there are three attributes or levels to human life. In the New Testament Greek three different words are used to refer to "life." Surprisingly, the kind of life that most of us recognize as "life" is not considered in the Scriptures as "real life." That is to say, the Bible does not consider this attribute of human life to be of great significance.
This first or most elemental level of human living is referred to by the Greek word "bios." The bios level of living is physical, biological living. An example of this word in the Scriptures is found in 1 John 2:16: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (KJV). This is what is commonly understood as life among most people. But this type of life is seen in the Bible as being entirely secondary to other levels of human living. We can see this in the number of times this word is used to refer to life in the Scriptures.
The word "life" appears in the New Testament of the Bible 188 times (King James Version count). Of all these occurrences of the word "life" bios is used only five times. From this fact we can see that, from the viewpoint of Scripture, biological life is the least important aspect of human living. This is not to say that the Father is unconcerned about the state of our physical bodies. People are often put off that the Bible seems so unconcerned about our physical existence. We are especially put off because we consider this aspect of our living to be so important. But this concern is misplaced.
The Father is far from unconcerned about our existence in the physical. The testimony to this concern rests in the fact that He sent His own Son into the world in a physical body. The physical life of Christ as Jesus was a key part of the Father's plan and was a "processing" of God on our behalf: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15). One of the key elements of Christ's earthly life was to share our experience of physical existence.
Our Father knows our physical existence and our weaknesses, joys, needs and limitations. What is indicated by the de-emphasis of biological life in the Bible is an understanding of relative importance. Biological life is transitory and is, therefore, of less importance than the other levels of human life. The ordering of importance based on the difference between the transitory and the eternal is a recurring theme in the Bible. This is no less true for the issue of life: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28).
In this verse from Matthew, we can see that the physical or biological part of life is temporary and was meant to be only a passing phase. The connotation in the Greek word "bios" shows this transient aspect of biological life. This Greek word carries the idea of "the period or course of life."[1] It should be obvious that the more important part of our existence is the part that continues for all time. And this eternal attribute is found in the remaining two levels of human life.
[1] Enhanced Strong's Lexicon, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Greek No. 979, 1992