Abused Bible Verses #1

As my trusty co-pilot, on long drives Sarah operates our iPod. Enjoying one of her selections the other day I asked, "What CD is this?"  I forget which CD it was now, probably because I tuned out before Sarah had a chance to answer. I was distracted by my own question; my language was archaic. It's like one of my parents asking "What record is this?" The question showed my generation. To transcend generations I should have asked, "What album is this?" It's like an older gentlemen I heard about who called his television "The picture-wireless."

I love words. It's why I enjoy cryptic crosswords, bad puns, alliterative sermon titles, and writing songs. I like the way a catchy phrase can be used to capture or illustrate a complex idea; the other day I wrote down two phrases to remember for future sermons "Mr Right and Mr Right Now" and "A One-Life Stand." And yet words and language are ever-changing in their meaning and usage. What does it mean to be evangelical when it is attributed to any quasi-Christian group that happens to be proclaiming a message whether it is of the gospel or not? And so we are in a right and constant battle to try and define words in order that we can define ourselves.

Mikey quoted Phillip Jensen the other day speaking about how we find as we study history that "By using the wrong words, we laid open for another generation to come and pervert the gospel." To what degree should we care about the words that we use and the words that are used about us?

And so with this disproportionately longwinded and largely irrelevant introduction I present to you 'Abused Bible Verses #1'

Abused Bible Verse:

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. - 2 Timothy 2:14

Most common abuse:

In this postmodern relativistic age, 2 Timothy 2:14 is used within discussion by persons who tire of disagreeing with you about the meaning of words. This objection to 'quarrelling about words' is a card that can be played regardless of the significance of the word in question. For example when suggesting to an individual that apart from the obvious difference in spelling, 'temple' simply doesn't equal 'church' as we understand it, the individual in question would counter with the quotation of 2 Timothy 2:14 and a stern warning about the repercussions of continued disagreement.