Never

"Never, never, never, no, not ever!"

You think I'm quoting Winston Churchill's famous address to Harrow School on October 29,1941, right? It was after the Luftwaffe's blitz that pummeled Britain but could not soften it enough for invasion, and the Prime Minister addressed his alma mater thus:

"Never give in. Never, never, never---in nothing, great or small, large or petty---never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

But actually I had in mind a Bible passage, one inadequately rendered in our English versions:

". . . he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you'" (Hebrews 13:5).

I wish I knew Greek. I'm sure our translators do the best they can, but in this case I would have preferred the wooden and clunky to the smooth and readable. C.H. Spurgeon tells us that in the original language there are no less than five negatives in this verse:

"Two negatives nullify each other in our language; but here, in the Greek, they intensify the meaning following one after another."

He cites a song that begins to capture the force:

"The soul that on Jesus hath lean'd for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes / That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake."

One promise of "never forsake you" from God should be good enough. He is not like man, ready to say, "Yes, yes" and "No, no." But mindful of our fragility, our weakness, and need for reassurance, He gives the promise a fivefold strength, because there are some of us who keep imagining we have finally committed the one sin that will be the deal breaker.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.