In Scripture it seems the context is what ultimately determines a words definition. For instance, there are several words translated as love, yet they each have nuanced differences, and also the word translated as if. There three definitions of if.
1) If- and it is true
2) If- and it’s not true
3) If- and it may or may not be true
How and where a word is used best determines its specific meaning. General definitions are helpful, but not adequate for serious study.
Undoubtedly words can have a semantic range, and only one of the meanings within that range may be applicable in one particular context. I agree. However, there are places where the meanings of these terms are made clear.
For instance, Romans 7 defines will for us. Will is explained their as being desire, and Romans 7 makes it clear that one can genuinely
will something without being able
to perform what one is willing. Therefore, we can say that biblically, will does not include doing what is willed. Inability to
do what is willed in no way constrains one's genuine ability to nevertheless
will that thing.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For
I do not do what
I want/will, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if
I do what
I do not want,/will I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For
I have the desire/will to do what is right, but
not the ability to carry it out. 19 For
I do not do the good
I want/will, but the evil
I do not want /will is what
I keep on doing. 20 Now if
I do what
I do not want/will ,it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when
I want/will to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Clearly, the Bible does not say that our will is constrained, but that out actions are constrained by the weakness of our flesh habituated to sin.
So, biblically "the will" is the desires or wants; and "to will" is to desire or want. Willing precedes doing, and being able to will is not negated by any limitations placed on the ability to perform that which is willed.
This is why Jesus tells us that deliberately willing/desiring to commit a particular sin makes us culpable for that sin, even if we do not carry it out.
PS. "If" was not one of the words on my list. If you would like to discuss the biblical definition of "if", I suggest a new thread, and I may join in there..
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