Power

Power, in Scripture, is the capacity to act — to create, sustain, rescue, and hold fast — and it is spoken of first as God's own and only then as something creatures receive, exercise, or lack.

The text says of God that he "gives power to the weak" and "increases the strength of him who has no might" (Isaiah 40:29), and that those who "wait for Yahweh will renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31). Linguistically, the Hebrew noun behind "power" and "strength" in those verses (kōaḥ) carries the sense of vital vigor, the energy of a living body, so the promise is not of raw force but of life supplied to the exhausted. The same personal, upholding character marks Isaiah 41:10 — "I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness" — and grounds the summons of Isaiah 26:4, "Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock." Divine power in these passages is relational and covenantal rather than abstract.

In the New Testament the characteristic Greek word is dynamis, "power" or "might," and it is consistently located in the inner life before it is visible anywhere else. The prayer of Ephesians 3:16 is "that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person"; Ephesians 6:10 reads, "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might"; Philippians 4:13 reads, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Colossians 1:11 is especially telling about direction: believers are "strengthened with all power … for all endurance and perseverance with joy" — power ordered toward staying, not escaping. And 2 Corinthians 12:9 states the paradox plainly: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," which Paul answers by saying he will "rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me." One way to read the whole biblical pattern is that power is something received in dependence rather than seized, though the texts themselves state this as promise and testimony rather than as a theory.

Power is also at issue in what Christ claims to do and to be. John 10:28 speaks of keeping power — "They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" — and John 10:30 adds, "I and the Father are one." 1 Peter 3:18 describes Christ as "being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit," and readers have long heard in that contrast the decisive exercise of God's life-giving power, though the verse's own vocabulary is "made alive" rather than "power." Historically, Christian traditions have differed in how they construe divine power itself. Eastern Orthodox theology distinguishes God's unknowable essence from his uncreated energies, so that passages like Ephesians 3:16 describe real participation in God's own power. Western Catholic and Reformed theology, stressing divine simplicity and sovereignty, identifies power with God's essence and will, with Catholic teaching emphasizing sacramental mediation of grace and Reformed teaching emphasizing providence and omnipotence. Pentecostal and charismatic readings treat dynamis as a present, tangible enablement for healing and witness, hearing 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Ephesians 3:16 as experiential promises, while some modern theologians argue that God's power is properly persuasive rather than coercive. John 10:30 likewise divides readers: Trinitarian traditions hear a claim of shared divine essence, while unitarian traditions hear unity of will or mission.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.