DAILY DEVOTIONAL – April 14, 2020
“Sanguine“
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world. You alone were the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and through Your resurrection from the dead You have proven true the words You spoke in John 14:6, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Thank you for Your blood Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Devotional – “Sanguine”
Do you know what the word sanguine means? Sanguine is a very interesting word, not only in its meaning but in its etymology – how the word came to be and came to mean what it means.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the first definition of sanguine means, “to be marked by eager hopefulness : confidently optimistic.” The second definition is “blood red”; as in the color red. When most people use the word sanguine today they use it in the context of meaning
optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation. Other synonyms include bullish, hopeful, positive, looking on the bright side, confident, cheerful, cheery and bright.
The word sanguine comes from the Latin and Old French word that literally means “blood” or to be “of blood”. How did the word meaning “blood” come to mean “optimistic”? According to Webster’s Dictionary:
During the Middle Ages, a person’s health and temperament were believed to be governed by the balance of four different liquids, or “humors”, in one’s body. Those four liquids were phlegm, black bile (also called melancholy), yellow bile (or choler), and blood. If any of those four liquids/humors predominated, then your personal disposition and health were said to be ruled by that liquid/humor.
People who were calm, slow, undemonstrative, and unexcitable were thought to have an abundance of phlegm – they were governed by that liquid/humor and were therefore phlegmatic. Those who were bilious had a bad disposition because of the large amount of yellow or black bile in their system. But those lucky people who were governed by an abundance of blood were strong and confident…optimistic…or sanguine.
In time, the physiological theory behind the humors dissipated, but the word sanguine is still commonly used to describe those who are cheerfully confident.
In the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate, the word sanguine is the word used for blood. Now knowing the history of that word and what it means more fully, listen again to what Paul says in our passage from Colossians when he says in verses 19-20, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood (sanguine) of his cross.”
This is why we call Good Friday, Good Friday! This is why the blood-red cross of Christ gives us every reason to be optimistic, cheerful and full of hope. By faith in Jesus’ perfect blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and by faith in His resurrection from the dead that has given us new life, we have found and been made to be at peace with God. Our sins had given us every reason for hopelessness and fear and pessimism, however, Christ’s victory over sin, death and the devil have replaced fear with confidence before God, hopelessness with eternal assurance and pessimism with the ability to say with Paul in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Even in the midst of our own sin and in the midst of a fallen and broken world that brings dark and difficult days to us all, the sanguine blood of Jesus gives us every reason in the world to be sanguine. To be sanguine about our salvation, to be sanguine about our eternity, to be sanguine about our life. We, of all people, as those who have abandoned the hope of ourselves and trust solely in the sufficiency of Christ, we should be able to look on the bright side of life, because as 1 John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
It isn’t healthy or wise to go through life with rose-colored glasses, but it is absolutely healthy and wise to live life and see life through the sanguine blood of Christ. It’s the only way to live life fully alive.
Thanks for joining me for another daily devotional in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
