Words matter. What do they mean?

My intellectual understandings are in debt to many different people. I doubt if there is a truly creative thinker. We all borrow. We acquire. We soak up like a sponge. We listen. We watch. We read. I owe a great debt to Dr. Dwayne Cole, a retired college professor, Presbyterian minister, and building contractor. He is a linguist, master of five languages. His contribution to my understanding is actually simple. He insists that words do not have meaning. Words only have uses.

Dwayne has many illustrations. One of my favorites is “bank.” Is it a business location at which we make financial transactions? Is it the shore that defines the edge of a lake or stream? Or is it a basketball shot that hits a flat surface before dropping through the rim? Is it a noun, a verb, or an adjective? Obviously the word’s meaning is dependent on its context. The context in which a word is used determines the meaning. The confusion becomes even greater when words are translated from one language to another.

This dilemma is critical in the communication of Christian Faith. Greek is the original language of a significant portion of the Bible. There are three Greek words that are translated as love. The Greek words have different meanings and are obviously incompatible with each other, especially when put in context. Context is the translator’s worst nightmare. Jesus spoke in Aramaic. Can we reclaim his intent when he spoke of love? Has Christianity’s most precious word been mortally wounded? What does it mean to love? What is the meaning of the love of God? What does it mean to love one another? What does it mean for a human being to love God with heart, mind and soul? What does it mean to love wife, husband, child and neighbor? What does it mean to love enemies?

I do not want to give up on the word “love.” As I ponder the challenge of words and the demise of the Christian understanding of love, my best answer is for Christians to live lives that form a context in which Christ’s love is more clearly understood. Christian believers have the power to restore the meaning of the love of God by the lives we live.

Love is not the only word that is at risk in our Christian Faith. The next word that comes to mind is “justice.” Jesus was a justice prophet in the tradition of Amos. Jesus firmly rejected the “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” ethic. Our American society has embraced this equity ethic with smug righteousness. Our society calls for equity and believes it to be justice. Jesus sought restoration, not equity. When the Old Testament prophet Amos wrote about justice, he was not writing about equity. He was writing about restoration. His plea was for “justice to roll down like a river and righteousness like an everlasting stream.” The world has stolen our word, given it a different context and a corrupted meaning. The vast majority of American Christians have baptized “eye for an eye” and are calling it justice.

Christian justice never calls for punishment or penalty. Justice seeks salvation (wholeness), restoration, healing, and a new day of reconciliation to God and neighbor for everyone.

I do not want to give up on the word “justice.” The word is too important, too vital, to abandon. Christian believers have the power to restore the meaning of justice by the lives we live. Justice needs a new context in order to be restored to its place in Christian Faith.

Yet another vital word in Christian living needs attention. My friend Dwayne believes it is the key to understanding God, understanding Christianity, and revitalizing the witness of Christians in the world. It is a key to unlocking the door to the Kingdom of God. The word is “kindness.”

Kindness is the fifth of the Fruits of the Spirit that are given to us by Paul in chapter five of his letter to the churches in Galatia. “The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” He adds “against such there is no law.” Kindness is a virtue that has escaped the corruption of the world’s onslaught on unique Christian language. Somehow kindness is still broadly accepted as a virtue.

Kindness has fallen short of its potential, however, not because of corrupted usage but because of its lack of usage in language in practical every day practice. We have our full supply of unkind persons; we see them and hear them in restaurants, offices, grocery stores, coffee shops, family homes, and even churches. However, there is an ocean of kindness that is waiting to be facilitated and used.

Kindness opens conversation. Kindness is never judgmental. Kindness gives respect.

Kindness restores. Kindness is never out of order. Kindness is waiting to be used in word and deed.

Words do matter. Love is waiting to be restored. Justice is waiting to be welcomed. Kindness is waiting to be the facilitator of all things good.

May God’s redemption be ours in 2017.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alalska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.