Who is the lord of your life? This question is of great eternal importance for each of us. But in order to answer it, we need an accurate understanding of the word lord.
Our English Word Lord
My earliest acquaintance with the word was from an elementary history unit on the feudal system in medieval Europe. Lords held absolute control over the land the king granted them. They provided housing, military defense, and justice for the knights and serfs who served them.
Our English word lord originated from the Old English compound word hlafweard: from hlaf, “bread, loaf” + weard, “keeper, guardian.” It literally meant “one who guards the loaves.” Later it was shortened to the contraction hlaford, “master of a household, ruler, feudal lord, superior; husband,” eventually becoming lord. [1]
We no longer operate in a feudal system under a “lord,” but the word is still very significant to Christians since it is found all throughout the Bible. It made its way into the Bible when Christianity was brought to the Anglo-Saxons in Britain during the Early Middle Ages. Because the Scriptures were not in their language, the inhabitants of the isle had to use their available Old English words for understanding. One of several they picked to name God was the one that originally meant “loaf warden.” [2]
Their choice makes sense. God is our provider, our refuge, our protector, our vindicator. But to have a truer knowledge of the meaning of Lord in the Bible, we must go back to the original Hebrew and Greek.
Lord in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, LORD (written in all caps) represents the Hebrew word Yhvh, which we sometimes write as Yahweh or Jehovah. Its first occurrence is at creation: “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens—” (Genesis 2:4). LORD “denotes that he alone has his being of himself, and that he gives being to all creatures and things.” [3]
Yahweh is the divine name of God as revealed to Moses from the burning bush:
14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3:14-15)
God called himself I AM. It’s from the Hebrew word hayah, meaning “to exist, to be.” [4] It “proclaims God’s eternal, self-existent being.” [5] At the same time God revealed his name, he directed Moses “to make use of another name of God more familiar to the Israelites,” LORD. [6] Like I AM, LORD also means “(the) self-Existent or Eternal.” [4]
“The term ‘Lord’ also embodies the idea of a personal relationship, particularly in the context of covenant.” [7] That is shown in God revealing his personal name to his people, in referring to being the God of their forefathers, and in declaring that his name is to be “remembered from generation to generation.”
The psalmist said, “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3). This also speaks of the close, caring relationship God wants with his people. And it says that because the LORD created us, we belong to him. He has ownership of us and responsibility for us.
LORD occurs over 6,000 times in the Old Testament, so these are just a few snapshots. However, we see that the LORD of the Old Testament is the Creator of all, the Self-Existent and Eternal One, a personal God, and our authority.
Lord in the New Testament
When we get to the New Testament, the Greek word translated as Lord is kurios. It means “supreme in authority; by implication, Master (as a respectful title)” [8], “a person exercising absolute ownership rights.” [9]
In ancient culture the master-servant relationship “wasn’t harsh or cold. A good lord provided protection, guidance, and provision. To call God Lord was to acknowledge Him as the rightful ruler of one’s life, the One who owns all things and rules with love.” [10] This term Lord was carried into the New Testament to refer to Jesus.
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Lord denotes Jesus’ supreme power and his fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. “When early Christians confessed ‘Jesus is Lord’…they were declaring that the carpenter from Nazareth was the very presence of Yahweh Himself, the sovereign God come in flesh.” [10]
This is affirmed by the writers of the New Testament applying Old Testament passages about Yahweh to Jesus. Here are a few:
The prophet Isaiah spoke of a voice calling in the desert, preparing for the coming of the LORD. Matthew referred to that Scripture when he wrote of John the Baptist preparing for the coming of Jesus.
A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” (Matthew 3:3)
The LORD declared his supremacy through the prophet Isaiah, and Paul identified Jesus as the same Lord.
“…Before me [the LORD] every knee will bow.” (Isaiah 45:23)
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth”
(Philippians 2:10)
Jesus declared himself as the I AM of the Old Testament.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Exodus 3:14)
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)
Lord Jesus in the New Testament is the same LORD God of the Old Testament.
Who is the Lord of Your Life?
Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Confess means “to profess because in full agreement; to align with; to speak the same thing.” [9] This verse speaks of expressing “our agreement with what God…declares to be true.” [11]
In confessing that Jesus is Lord, we agree with all God says about Jesus. We declare he is self-existent and eternal, he created us and we are not our own, he desires a personal relationship with us, he is a caring and just master, he is the supreme authority and has absolute ownership of us. We align ourselves with these truths. In essence, we are saying we want Jesus to be the Lord of our life.
Until we ask Jesus to rule in our lives, something or someone else occupies that throne. It may be another person who holds the reins. Maybe we let circumstances dictate how we live our life. Or it’s sin: every one of is a slave to sin before we choose to live for Jesus (Romans 6:6).
And, of course, we want to be lord of our own life, free from constraints, able to write our own story and chart our own course. The problem with that is we were not created, nor are we equipped, to rule ourself. We will consistently fail ourself when we try.
Only God has the supreme authority to reign over us. Only Jesus is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).
So—who or what is your lord? You get to choose.
[1] etymonline
[2] What is the Origin of the Word “Lord”?
[3] Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
[4] Lexical Summary
[5] Topical Lexicon
[6] Benson Commentary
[7] What does “Lord” mean in the Bible?
[8] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
[9] HELPS Word-studies
[10] What Does The Word Lord Mean In The Bible?
[11] Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Scripture quotations are from NIV.
Hebrew and Greek definitions and commentary notes are from Bible Hub. See Resources.
Feature photo by Belov Sergey on Unsplash
Oh yes, what a joy to choose Jesus as Lord! 🙂
Agreed!! Thank you, Brenda.