Words have meaning and when organized in proper grammatical structures, that meaning is transmitted to provide communication. When words no longer hold to their meaning, then communication is hampered and misunderstandings arise. In addition, the context of the use of words is important for furthering understanding. At times, cultural cues along with colloquialism, figurative language, and literary genre redefine the use of a word determined primarily by the communicator’s intent and context. For example, if someone were to say, “That dog is sick,” they might understand it literally as the canine is ill or as a person who is awesome depending on the context.
When it comes to the written word, the same is true. The intent of the author as well as the author’s culture and the culture’s understanding of the language and words help in arriving at a proper interpretation. It is not a simple task to interpret the meaning of the written word, especially when the interpreter is outside of the context of the communicator and where different languages might impact understanding. For example, “Ce faci?” literally means, “What are you doing?” However, it is a colloquialism in Romanian that is understood as, “How are you?” Understanding language and culture is of paramount importance for the missionary.
In the 21st century, words and meaning are further complicated with postmodern literary devices such as “reader response.” To the postmodern, words and meaning are based on the reader’s understanding rather than the author’s intent. Therefore, what might appear as clear to one reader could be understood completely differently to another. In the postmodern milieu, both can be right even though the meaning derived by each are in conflict. Truth, then, becomes subjective to one’s preference and moral absolutes no longer exist.
As those who hold to the word of truth and are commended to teach sound doctrine, words are important to us as missionaries. Without the precision of words and their historical and cultural meaning, what we teach and how we disciple can become subjective based on the language, even theological, biases of the communicator.
Words and the Development of Doctrine in the Early Church
It was not uncommon in the early church for the meaning of a word to have a profound effect on the development of a doctrine. In the 200s, a doctrinal controversy surrounding the physical body of Christ enveloped the early church. The controversy revolved around the understanding of Jesus’s physical body: was it flesh and bone or did it just appear as flesh and bone. Ultimately known as Docetism, proponents argued that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body. Derived from a misunderstanding of John 1:14, the Docetists held that the “Word” appeared to be flesh rather than became flesh. The controversy centered around a single word in Greek: ginomai. In its lexical range, the word can mean “became” or “appear.” Ultimately, the church agreed that the intent of John 1:14 was that the Word literally became flesh and thus Jesus is both fully human and fully God, one person, hypostatically united in two natures.
In the early 300s, a non-trinitarian view of Christ arose and was based on the meaning of the Greek word “begotten.” Arius believed, while Jesus was the Son of God, the fact that he was begotten meant there was a time when he did not exist and was therefore subordinate to the Father. Jesus was of like essence with God, but not the same essence with God. Ultimately, the first council of Nicaea settled the argument and preserved the doctrine of the Trinity. This debate continues in the growth of non-Trinitarian religions like Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostalism.
Nestorius debated the words Christotokos and Theotokos in relationship to Mary being the “mother of Christ” or the “mother of God.” According to what some say was Nestorius’ position, the Christ flowed through Mary and therefore Jesus did not have both a human and divine nature. The theological community of the day, namely the council of Ephesus in 431AD, determined that to maintain the two natures of Christ, Mary had to be the bearer of God, Theotokos. A single word was vitally important to the preservation of the doctrine of Christ as fully God and fully human.
At times, the misinterpretation of a word or phrase can have profound effects on theological development. For example, Augustine’s misinterpretation of “in whom” in Romans 5:12 indicating that all of humanity is culpable for Adam’s sin led the early church in a misunderstanding of the nature of original sin. This is a doctrine that the Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to hold. In his discussion regarding Augustine, Peter Kirk, former Wycliffe Bible translator, aptly comments on the importance of precision when interpreting Scripture.
“But my real point here is the need to be very careful before basing any kind of doctrine on a translation of the Bible. It is almost impossible for a translation to be precise and unambiguous in its rendering of little words like prepositions. Augustine’s Latin translation was not really inaccurate, it was just excessively literal and introduced an ambiguity which wasn’t in the original, like many translations into English and other languages today. Sadly, too many exegetes and preachers today base their teaching on similar misunderstandings of inadequate translations, and don’t bother to learn the original languages. Not many of their mistakes will still be remembered 1600 years later, but there are serious consequences for leading just one person astray by wrong teaching.” (Kirk, 2007)
Many other examples could be enumerated. Nevertheless, the point of the importance of the use of words and their historical and cultural meaning can have profound effects on theological development.
Words and Church Planting Movements
By the time of the Christianization of the Roman Empire, there could have been as many as 300,000 house churches spread from Iberia to Asia Minor. Over the past decade, the number of church planting movements have grown exponentially. With such growth, words, particularly those that have the effect on what people believe, are critically important to the fidelity of the Christian faith.
Of particular importance is the fact that church planting movements (CPMs) are starting in multiple languages and precision in the use of words has a greater importance. As such, avoiding colloquialisms and jargon as well as figurative language in our training material is vital to preserving theological orthodoxy. Equally as important is scrutinizing the words that we do employ in communicating biblical truth. Inaccuracies in word choice and meaning can easily result in misunderstandings that could lead to unintended theological consequences.
Teaching God’s word is a special responsibility and privilege of the church leader and missionary. To some extent, he or she will be held to a very high standard to teach it accurately (James 3:1). That standard is marked not just by the privilege of teaching, but also by a responsibility to accurately handle the word of God. With the religious diversity present in so many countries and people groups, not to mention the growth of heretical Christian religions, this task is vitally important to the long-term sustainability of church planting movements.
The importance is magnified as we focus on rapidly expanding movements. Just as we read in the New Testament, rapid expansion of the church can result in any number of issues that can threaten the ongoing success of a local group of believers. Those threats can be found in religious practices of a culture creeping into Christianity, ethnic tensions as different people groups that have been historically hostile to each other come into fellowship in the church, or simple personality conflicts so common in society.
The apostle Paul sums up the responsibility of teaching God’s word well, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). It then becomes of primary importance that stories of the Bible are told accurately and are aligned as closely with the text of the Bible as possible. To scrutinize these stories should be the first role of an equipping strategy.
Communicating Across Cultures
A proper communication model takes into consideration the use of words, meaning, context, and culture. Of primary importance is the assurance that the communicator is using words properly so chances of misunderstanding are reduced. Such a model might simply look like the following.
In order to ensure the communicator’s message is interpreted properly, the receptor needs to interact with the communicator to be certain that the meaning is what was originally intended. Such clarification is important to further reduce chances of misunderstanding. That model would look something like the following.
When a different language and culture are added to the model, the complexity of communication increases as well as the need for interaction between the communicator and the receptor. When a word is translated, the communicator must find a corresponding word. Then, in dialogue with the receptor, the communicator verifies that the word has the intended meaning. This model looks like the following.
This is a preferred model when related to cross-cultural equipping. When an equipping curriculum, such as a discipleship program, is developed, the trainer must verify the use and definitions of words to ensure that the meaning corresponds with the receptor’s culture. Even a literal translation might fall short of communicating the intended meaning. In such cases, a dynamic equivalence is employed in an attempt to preserve the proper meaning.
When we are telling stories, such as we might do in oral cultures, the same principles hold true. However, the accuracy of the story in the communicator’s language is of primary importance. If such accuracy is not upheld from the beginning, then there is no way to ensure proper interpretation. In these cases, the likelihood of variant understandings of stories might lead to the development of theological innovations.
Conclusion
Church history has shown us the importance of effectively communicating theological content. To ignore the lessons of those early theologians will certainly result in a reoccurrence of history. As missiologists, missionaries, or church planters, communicating the word of truth accurately across different cultures is of primary importance to the equipping strategy for maturing disciples, leaders, and church plants.
Whatever scrutiny we give to the material we use to equip the saints for ministry should be viewed as well worth the effort to ensure fidelity to the Christian faith. The Bible is not simply a book of words, but a book of God’s word. To be faithful to its accurate transmission is a non-negotiable as we move forward in equipping the saints for works of ministry.
Scott Harrower notes,
“Theological cultures of today matter for the sake of our churches and also for future generations. What we teach and commend to our students, churches, and friends will influence them and their children and grandchildren.” (2019:224)
Teaching in Oral Cultures
If you think storytelling, or its bigger brother orality, is just for tribal and peasant people, think again. This course investigates and demonstrates the genius of the narrative/story genre for those, yes, who can’t read, but also for growing multitude who can read, but do very little of it.
Come study with us
One of the things that I always look for when helping one of my students learn to read is whether or not the student knows and understands ‘concept of word’. What is ‘concept of word’? Why is it important that a student understand ‘concept of word’ when learning how to read?
Concept of word simply means that a student understands that each little group of letters in a sentence is a word, that words are separated by a space, and that and each word has a meaning and is a spoken word.
So, here is an example – Read the following sentence:
See the red hat.
If a student understands concept of word, the student sees 4 words in that sentence. The student can count these words. If you read the sentence to the student, the student can point to each word in the sentence and know that each written word is a spoken word. When a student sees and recognizes a ‘group of letters’ as a word, the student is seeing and understanding ‘concept of word.’ Once the student understands concept of word, the student begins to be able to break down the word into different sounds – (beginning, middle, ending) sounds – thus, helping the student learn to read the word by sounding out, or recognize the word -if it is a sight word.
Concept of word is a fairly easy concept for most students, but, students who struggle with reading may have difficulty with this concept. Each day in Mrs. Karle’s Learn to Read for free program, Mrs. Karle works with the students on concept of word by teaching the students to use a pointer, or their finger, to point to each word as they read. After she has finished teaching the students for the day, she has the students read the previous day’s reading and circle all the words that they know. The circling of the words the student knows allows Mrs. Karle (or, you, the student’s teacher!) to see whether or not the student understands where each word begins and ends. In other words, the circling of the words shows you that the student understands concept of word. It also shows the student that he/she knows many words! This gives the student confidence that he/she knows how to read, and encourages the student to keep reading.
Look for more ideas on how to help your student learn concept of word in upcoming blog posts!
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Kindergarten Teaching Ideas
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Yash
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29 Apr
The purpose of the MS Word is to allow the users to type and save documents. …Microsoft word is used to save documents. The documents can be copied to flash drive which serves as an external memory for your computer. This allows you to use the saved documents conveniently taking with you anywhere.
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Bhandkoli
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29 Apr
Microsoft word is an important education application. It is important to process raw facts into meaningful information. Microsoft word can benefits teachers and students to create new innovative methods of learning and teaching.
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Ankita -
29 Apr
MS WORD is an important application for education purpose. In this digital world, it helps to make notes inspite of notebooks. We can prepares notes with diagrams, graphs, tables and smart art etc. We can organise our work in proper manner and the most important part is that we can share its word file without any restrictions.
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Pradnya
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10 Jul
Microsoft is useful in todays life MS word is same as some notes in the notebook .MS word is an important education application. It is important to process raw facts into meaningful information. MS word can benefits teachers,business and students to create new innovative methods of learning and teaching. MS word and MS office suite for students help to transmit educational materials and practice systematically in school and university faster with higher quality.
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Sobia
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09 Jul
ms word is a very helpful for all kinds of people like students, businessmen, employees etc.it has a wide diversity of things like making our notes more easy and attractive to prepare a word document
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Ayushi -
09 Jul
MS word is the first one that we use frequently in our daily life whether it’s professional or not.as a beginner you must have the knowledge about that..
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Abirami
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09 Jul
It is for making notes…as we make our notes in college….It is also used for presentations by using word art,clips,pictures etc.,.
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Presentation on theme: «Do Now 9-15 I can discover the meaning of unknown words. Why do you think it is important to know a lot of words?»— Presentation transcript:
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Do Now 9-15 I can discover the meaning of unknown words. Why do you think it is important to know a lot of words?
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Con/Com-
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Con/Com= with, together, very
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E-Ex-Ef-
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E-, ex-, ef- means OUT, VERY
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Per
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Per= through, thorough, wrongly
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Grade 3 Recall Grade 2 Recall Grade 1 Recall Grade 4 Analyze Grade 5 Analyze Grade 6 Analyze Grade 7 Apply Grade 8 Apply High School Apply
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What is the definition of the prefix in the word below? exalt
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What is the definition of the prefix in the word below? perspective
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What is the definition of the prefix in the word below? concussion
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Define this word. perforate
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Define this word. conserve
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Define this word. expedition
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Correctly use this word in a sentence. Permeate
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Correctly use this word in a sentence. companions
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Correctly use this word in a sentence. excessive
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Independent Reading As you read, try to learn two new words! Let us know if you come across our prefixes of the day!
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Exit Slip Fill in the blanks on your exit slip: 1. con, com= ________, together, _______ 2. e-,ex-,ef-= Out, ___________ 3. per= ____________, ___________, wrongly
Words are important. We use words communicate with our friends and family. We use our words to conduct business. I use words to put songs together and make a living. We use words to discipline our children. Politicians use words to convince you that they’re the best candidate for the job. Words are a huge part of every aspect of our lives. I have a new son. It’s hard to live with a person seven weeks old, mainly because they can’t talk. So sometimes I want to help him but don’t know how because he can’t communicate with words yet. It’s hard to imagine a world without words.
The average person says about 16,000 words a day. That’s 112,000 words every week. That’s over five million words every year. We use words. A lot.
And anything that there’s a lot of begins to be undervalued. The value of something changes based on how much of it there is. When there are 100 cookies on a table after service you might keep talking for a while. But when there are only a few cookies, they seem precious. You’ll probably rush over there and if you get one in time, that bite is a lot sweeter. Because we hear and use so many words every day they don’t mean much to us. But we should see them as precious.
Maybe we think only the really important things we say are significant. Maybe we think only what we write down, or only when we have groundbreaking conversations or only when we say what we really think our words matter. I think our verse tonight communicates something very different. Turn with me to Matthew 12:36.
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. (Matthew 12:36)
Background
Jesus says these words in the midst of a conversation with the Pharisees, after they accuse Him of casting out demons by Satan. And so Jesus basically tells them that they’re evil, and can’t say anything good (he has a kind way with words). He tells them that all of our words are the fruit of what’s taken root in our hearts.
And then he drops that bomb on us. That will we have to answer to God for every careless word we speak. This doesn’t only apply to the Pharisees. It’s true for every single one of us. And the following verse is even more frightening. He says, “For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” But why? Why are our words so important? Why will we be acquitted or condemned based on something as trivial as the words we say?
Heart
He makes that clear earlier when He says, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Have you ever felt unfairly judged? Like someone caught you on a bad day when you were mad and judged your entire character on that one day? Well being judged by our words isn’t like that. It’s not like words are just one aspect of our character that don’t define us. We can be accurately judged by our words because they are an accurate reflection of what’s happening in our hearts.
It’s almost like I’m holding a cup, you don’t know what’s in there. I could tell you water is in there, or juice is in there. But if I trip and splash or spill some of that drink, you’ll know exactly what’s in there. It’s the same with our words and our hearts. When we speak, the content of our hearts is spilling out. Our words always show what’s in our hearts, whether good or evil. And as Paul Tripp, an author I read this week, said, “You have never spoken a neutral word in your life.”
Held Accountable for Our Words
Every now and then someone will get caught on tape saying something they never would have said in public. This happened to President Obama when he was talking to the President of Russia. This happened to Mitt Romney last week. They didn’t expect to be held accountable for those words, but they were. Similarly, we think we won’t be held accountable for certain words we speak. We think we say things, and itʼs done, but they will come back to bite us. It’s as if God has hidden cameras all over creation.
There is a day – the text calls it the Day of Judgment – when we will stand before the holy Judge of the entire universe. And when we do our words will stand in as witnesses – either testifying for us or against us. The evidence will be presented.
God will look at the way we spoke to our parents as a child and the way we speak to our spouses or bosses as adults. God will examine the way we spoke to strangers on the street. God will investigate the jokes we told to our co-workers. God will comb through our angry rants in traffic on the drive to work. He’ll even scroll through what we typed on Facebook and Twitter. Even the words we send in text messages or emails. Every single word.
You notice Jesus doesn’t say we will have to give an account for the important words we speak. He says, “every careless word.” The word used for careless is also translated as idle or useless. Every word, no matter how insignificant you think it is. The all-knowing God we talked about this morning, knows every word we’ve ever spoken.
And here’s the thing. Just one ungodly word is enough to condemn us. Which of course means, all of us should be condemned for our words.
Well there are three words, uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ, that supersede every careless word I’ve ever spoken. Those three words are “It. Is. Finished.” After having lived the perfect life, after having only used his words in a way that glorified God, Jesus went to the cross. And when he hung on that cross, he died even for the sins of our speech. And He rose three days later.
And for those of us who put our faith in Christ, yes, there are edifying words we’ve spoken that are fruit of our relationship with Christ. And those words will testify in our favor. But we would still be condemned by all the other words. And praise God that the blood of the Lord Jesus covers those words. If you don’t know Jesus, turn away from your sins and trust in the only one who can forgive you for all of your sins, including the sins of your speech.
So as believers, though we won’t be condemned for our words, we’ll still be held accountable for them. We’ll still have to answer to God for them and we can lose rewards in Heaven.
Stewardship
Some of us are very careful with our money. We make budgets, we balance our checkbooks, we keep our receipts, and we look at our online billing statements. Because we know a lot is at stake. We know we have to steward our money well.
Well that same kind of carefulness, and calculation should be applied to the way we use our words. Because a lot is at stake. And we will answer to God for every one of our words. We should be good stewards of the words we use.
Our words are like hammers. We can recklessly swing them around and break stuff. Or we can use them carefully build stuff. How will you use your words this week? How we used our words this past week will probably show us how we might use them this coming week, unless something changes.
So I want to give three ways that we can use our words well.
I. Talk to God
Of the 16,000 words we use every day, we would be wise to use many of those in conversation with God. Jesus has given us access to the Father, and we should come boldly before His throne often. Our spouses may have problems with being good listeners, but God doesn’t. He always hears our prayers. In fact, He listens very closely.
Often when we’re going through something difficult, the first thing we do is just vent to friends of family. Or maybe we just rant about it out loud to ourselves. What a waste of words. Just last week, I was complaining to my wife about something that was just really bothering me and I was concerned about. And before agreeing or offering any counsel, she just asked me simply, “Have you been praying about it?” And the answer was no. I should have been talking to God about it. That would have been a far better use of my words.
Often venting does nothing more than make us madder. It’s a waste of words sometimes. But talking to God is never a waste of words. There’s no better use of your words. We’re not in control, but He is. So when we need help, instead of just being mad, we should just talk to the One who’s in charge. And if it’s good for us and for His glory, He will grant us our request.
Some of us may be confrontational. And when we have issues with someone, we go right to the person to take care of it. We should remember that talking to God about the situation is more important and effective than talking to the other person. Talk to God about your relational issues before you talk to the other person. Ask Him for help and grace and wisdom. Allow the weight of talking to your Creator to sober you and help you think more clearly.
And we shouldn’t only use our words to ask God for stuff. This is why we have a prayer of praise every Sunday morning. We should just praise Him some times. We should be coming up with unique ways to sing His praises. More than just, “He is good. Thank you God.” The heart that is saturated with love for God finds new ways and new reasons to praise God every day. He is worthy of our praise.
II. Tell the Good News
I can’t think of anything better to tell another person, than the Good News. God has spoken in these last days through His Son Jesus Christ. And we should tell others about Him and what He’s done.
Romans 10 tells us that, “Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.” This is how God saves men and women. When they hear the Gospel and receive it by faith.
I want you to think for a moment about what person in your life needs to hear the Gospel. Is it a family member, a colleague, a neighbor, a barber, a doctor? What person in your life needs to hear the Gospel?
It’s good for us to use our words to build relationships and common ground with our non-Christian friends. It’s good for them to know you care about them. But it’s devastating if we never actually get around to sharing the Gospel with them. It would be devastating if we had 10 conversations about politics, but not one about the Gospel. It would be devastating if we had weekly conversations about sports, but never had any conversations about Jesus. And I’m talking about myself.
Recently, I had family members die. And whenever that happens, it reminds me, that some times it’s good to wait, but sometimes I need to tell folks about Jesus right now. I know my disobedience can’t thwart God’s plans, but that doesn’t mean I should be disobedient. And by all means, follow the leading of the Spirit, but know that He never leads us to put off stuff that needs to be said now. Tell the Good News.
This doesn’t mean that should be our only interaction with non-Christians. But it does mean that it needs to happen. Maybe we should bring them to church and use the sermon as a launching to pad to talk about it. Maybe we point them to a good book or cd that talks about the Gospel (ahem, mine). Find a way to tell the Gospel.
III. Build Up Others (G- Grace)
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
That should be the overall guiding principle for our words to other people. Only what is helpful for building others up. Like I said earlier, our words are like hammers. We can break stuff or build stuff. And there are tons of ways to build others up.
Jesus tells us that man does not live off bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God has spoken precious words. And we should be echoing those precious words to each other every chance we get.
One way is encouragement. I think this is something CHBC does exceptionally well. It actually caught me and my wife off guard when we first came. “Did they just encourage me about the question I asked?” Up under this encouragement is affirmation. Affirm others. Tell them when you see evidences of God’s grace in their lives. Affirm your love for them. Affirm God’s love for them.
Another way is challenging one another. We shouldn’t think “build up” means the same as cute, inspirational sounding words. Sometimes build up looks like rebuke, or correction. Sometimes it looks like challenging a brother or sister and calling them to repent of a sin. This is one of the things we have made a commitment to each other to do – to walk with each other through good times and rough times.
And we happen to be going through a tumultuous time as a church right now. And we need both encouragement and challenging words. Encourage your brothers and sisters in the Gospel. Remind them of God’s sovereignty and His goodness and His promises. And also challenge your brothers and sisters to fight the good fight of faith, to persevere in trusting Jesus. We need that.
Another way you can build others up is by giving good counsel. The most mature decision makers are those who don’t make decisions in isolation. Be available to hear about what’s going on in your brother or sister’s life. And help them think through how God would have them respond. And give biblical counsel.
On the one hand, as a church, we do a great job of having good spiritual conversations. On the other hand, we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about things other than Jesus. We can talk about life, and we can talk about sports, just do it in a way that glorifies God.
Some of you need to stop talking so much and others need to start talking more. Some of us need to be quicker to hear. Some of us never use any words. And we need to do more. Speak up. God is working in your life and we want to hear about it. Let all your words be characterized by love. My prayer is that CHBC would be a church characterized by loving words.
Conclusion
As you seek to apply what you’ve heard tonight, don’t make the mistake of just trying to keep track of what you say and just trying to do better. Don’t just tackle this only on the outside.
As we see earlier in the text, what’s stored up in our hearts comes out. We should not think there is a disconnect between the heart and the tongue. So store up good things in your heart and watch them overflow. And when we do that, here is how we should be striving to use our words.
The real way to watch your words is to watch your hearts because they are so closely connected. There is a direct line from the heart to the tongue. Watch your heart, and by doing that, watch your Words. And do all of this by watching the Word.