Words. They’re a God thing. And they’re a human thing.
Think about it. How did God create the world? By the power of His word. He spoke, “Let there be,” and there was.
And what is the one biological creature He created that has the ability to speak words? Only human beings.
Words are God’s domain, and because He created us to bear His image, He has made words our domain. He has given us the capacity to speak. Words.
Enter Satan. Jesus describes Satan as “the father of lies.” And what does a liar do? He uses words to do something God cannot do. A liar uses words to hide the truth.
Sometimes a liar is bold, and simply speaks a falsehood. But if he’s clever, he lies by speaking old words to which he assigns new meanings. And if he repeats such error over and over again, he imbeds the lie in the hearts and minds of people who hear those words and don’t even realize that they’ve come to believe a lie.
Lies aren’t just about religious things. Lies are spoken all the time, even in non-religious discussions. If you’re the new Miss America, for example, when you are asked about whether or not schools should provide armed guards to protect school children, you answer the question by misusing a word, thereby speaking a lie: “I don’t think the proper way to fight violence is with violence.”
People can disagree with school boards that permit teachers or school staff to carry guns in order to protect school children from danger, but to call such protection “violence” is to speak a lie. Police officers carry guns. They are not thereby being violent. They carry guns to serve and protect others. Parents who want teachers to carry concealed weapons are not advocates of violence. They merely want teachers equipped to serve and protect their children from violence.
Miss America wasn’t trying to lie, but because she’d heard others mistakenly (but often deliberately) redefine an old word, “violence,” by giving it a new meaning, “carrying a gun,” her words actually hid the truth and perpetrated a lie.
But it gets worse. Words that lie aren’t just spoken in our world. They are also spoken in the Church. Sometimes such lies are full-throttle, like “Evolution and the Bible are compatible.” A lie.
But sometimes lies in the Church are subtle. Like Miss America, those who tell such lies do so unknowingly, using familiar Christian words with meanings that have been changed.
The Christian Church exists to confess the One who came from heaven, the One who gave Himself on a cross, on which He was declared to be sin by His Father and thereby bear the curse of sin—death—upon Himself. By speaking this word about Jesus, the Christian Church leads sinners to faith in Jesus Christ, through which God delivers those sinners from the kingdom of lies, Satan’s domain, to God’s own kingdom of truth and life.
Such a deliverance, where words of truth bring life to sinners, is an act of God’s grace. But make no mistake. The Church’s message, based on the testimony of the apostles and prophets, is that this grace is only delivered through faith in Jesus Christ.
And here is where Satan can work His ploy in the Church. The old “lets use old words with new meanings” father of lies whispers “Did God really say” in the Church.
When you hear a familiar phrase like “God’s grace,” is it defined as “God’s mercy, given for the sake of the One who became sin for us on the cross,” or is “grace” merely used to describe a kinder, more tolerant God? That change in the meaning of “grace” makes the old word a new lie.
When you hear the word “gospel,” is it defined as “The good news of Christ’s obedience to His Father, to receive sin’s curse upon Himself on the cross for us,” or is “gospel” defined as “Our commitment to serve God and to live for Him”? Though well-intended, such a change in the meaning redefines “gospel” to be a word about us, not about Christ, and makes the old word a new lie.
Words. They’re a God thing. And they’re a human thing. But be warned. They are also a Satan thing. Received from God, defined in Christ, His words bring life. Misused, that is, defined apart from Christ and His cross, those old words lie and hide the life Christ came to bring.
May you know His word, His words in Christ, today and forever. He is faithful. And His word is truth.
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