Bible Dictionaries
Earnest

　　A pledge of the performance of a promise; or part of a debt, paid in assurance of the payment of the whole; or part of the price, paid down to confirm a bargain; or part of a servant's wages, paid at the time of hiring, to ratify the engagement. In the New Testament it describes the gifts of God to his people here, as the assurance and commencement of the far superior blessings of the life to come, 2 Corinthians 1:22 5:5 Ephesians 1:13,14 .