I'm a little bit of a wordsmith. I love words. I love definitions and I love etymologies. My B.A. is in Speech Communication and my graduate degree is in Communication. So words and language and meaning all are things that jump out to me. I especially love it when you happen upon words that are so unique that they are only used a few times in holy writ.
Titus 2:10 is really cool because it contains a word that is only ever used once in all of the Bible. When discussing how servants should interact with their masters, in other words how employees or subordinates should act towards their bosses or supervisors, Paul says, "Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity: that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."
Purloining is the word that jumps off the page to me every time I read it. I had actually forgotten what it meant when I came across it today and I had to go look it up. If you want to be a student of the Bible you should definitely invest in a Strong's Concordance. The Greek word for 'purloining' means stealing, or more exactly, pilfering. Pilfering is stealing it just means what is stolen is either not very valuable or in very small amounts that will go unnoticed.
Wordsmithing rocks! :-)
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