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"You will trust God only as much as
you love Him. And you will love Him not because
you have studied Him; you will love Him because
you have touched Him -- in response to His
touch."
(Brennan Manning)
Watching Our
Language
Cuss-words,
swearing, and crudity are as common in today's
language as fleas on a dog. Unavoidable,
inevitable, and all over the place. Not that
it's desirable or acceptable; just that it's
common. Followers of Christ would do well to
take a flea bath on a regular
basis.
But
a more subtle and sinister language slips
straight through our defences and may prove
significantly
more harmful.
The
language that has found its way into the
Christian bloodstream and threatens to undermine
the gospel in our lives, is the language of law.
Most folk are fluent in this destructive
dialect.
The
language of law repeatedly uses terms
of obligation, duty, and demand. Listen to
yourself speak. Read what you write. And look
for terms like "should, ought, have to, need to,
and must." I should do more Bible
study. I ought to pray more. I
must do more in ministry. I need
to be more compasisonate. Etc. Every
statement is couched in the language of
obligation and does little more than compound
our guilt and deaden our
joy.
Why
do so many of us speak about grace but actually
live by law? We tout freedom in Christ but live
oppressed by the duties (and our failures) of
the faith. Real grace and liberation will result
in (and may be the result of) a new
language.
The
language of grace uses a different set of terms.
I want to read more. I'd like
to give. I desire to serve. I
choose to pray.
Etc.
Only
as we voice this latter language will the
shackles of the law begin to loosen and the
freedom of the gospel begin to flood our hearts
like a burst dam pouring into the valley below.
It sounds so terribly simple ... replacing one
range of words with another and resisting the
bondage of
duty.
As
we watch our language, especially the insidious
law language that seems endemic to the gospel
community, we'll not only enjoy new freedom
ourselves but we'll begin extending true freedom
to others. The world criticizes the Church with
good cause when we proclaim good news and then
beat ourselves constantly with terms of
obligation, duty, and
demand.
A
huge step forward for all of us might come as we
employ grace language and discard the noxious
language of the law.
Let's
watch our language this week -- and be shaped by
it. "It was for freedom that Christ set us
free!" (Gal
5.1)
In
HOPE
-
David | 