life and LIFE

     Bios and zōē are Greek words for “life.” They differ. Bios connotes biological functioning (“Does that body lying on the ground have any bios in it?”). Zōē implies more than existence—it is Life with a capital “L”. Jesus used it: “I have come that they might have zōē, and have it more abundantly.” He was talking about a quality of experience, not mere extended biological functioning.

What a beautiful hiking day one winter Wednesday two years ago! As I approached the last ascent, my cellphone rang. Physician’s secretary wanting to pre-screen me for COVID before the next day’s appointment. “Have you had any shortness of breath?” “No,” I panted. But what worries would my wheezing awaken in her mind? I had been slogging along the trail for an hour in a foot of snow! So yes, I was momentarily winded. But admitting that might have made her suspect that I harbored COVID, and so cancel my appointment....

In all the putative attempts to preserve bios in recent years, I wonder how much zōē our world has lost?

Fear of sickness is not the only disease that zaps zōē. The house of a man I know used to be filled with friends and frolicking. He gradually instead stuffed his rooms with Stuff (mostly useless). No place now for people and games. He forgot that “A person’s zōē does not consist of the abundance of his or her possessions.”

Overemphasis on bios can weaken the working of God’s Word within; therefore no soldier in active service entangles himself with its affairs. The boastful pride of bios is not from the Father but from the world; no wonder that “the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to zōē, and only a few find it.” Wisdom includes jettisoning all that impedes our finding and walking that way, for “it is better to enter zōē crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.”

Some people choose bios over zōē because bios is more immediate. It sometimes seems easier or more important. Moses attempted to extract Israel from Egypt and slavery. Threats along the way to Canaan unnerved many. “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic.” They debated returning to Egypt. Bios over zōē. Certainly we should strive to sustain our bios. But not by forfeiting zōē.