The Bible

 

2 Samuel 2:16

Study

       

16 And they held·​·firmly, a man his companion by the head, and his sword was in the side of his companion; and they fell together; and they called that place Chelkath-hazzurim*, which is in Gibeon.


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

Commentary

 

Servant

  

“Servant” literally means “a person who serves another," and its meaning is similar in reference to its spiritual meanings of the Bible. Our lives in their most outward form -- the physical actions we take and the thoughts and feelings directly connected to them -- are in a way “servants” to our deeper, more hidden, internal thoughts and desires. So in most cases, “servants” in the Bible represent things we're doing and thinking on that outward, external level. Servants can have good masters or evil ones, obviously, and a servant doing good work in service of an evil master is actually making the world a more evil place. So the precise meaning of a given servant in the Bible depends on the nature of the master he or she is serving. Finally, when the Bible is addressing the Lord's own spiritual development, “servant” represents the Lord's most outward aspect: the human body he inherited from Mary, with all its frailties and potential for temptation.