My friend, Becky, has posted an excellent piece about the importance of words and their meanings, words like "religion" and "meditation," just to name a few.
Granted, many today abuse these words and have fashioned Christianity into nothing more than beliefs based on their emotions instead of the word of God. They have cast aside Scripture, saying it's not enough, and instead want to rely on the voices inside their heads.
But we don't have to give these words up to their ignorance or foolishness or sin. While we should always be discerning, and we can only be that by being in the Word ourselves and hearing the Word of God preached each week, we need to guard against a retaliatory spirit that screams, "Aha! I caught you!" when a fellow Christian uses one of these words. Much more needs to be known to rightly label someone a heretic than whether they use the words "meditate" or "contemplate" or to brand someone a hypocrite because she speaks of her "religion."
You can read Becky's thoughts here. And here are a couple more great posts about the attack on the word "religion."
Does Jesus Hate Religion? Kinda, Sorta, Not Really
Following Up on the Jesus, Religion Video
With love,
Trisha
Making Your Home an Oasis
3 years ago
Thanks for joining the conversation, my friend. I absolutely agree when you say that "we don't have to give these words up to their ignorance or foolishness or sin." So true. And at the same time we don't want to stop being discerning, we want to be wise and as one of my friend said on the comments on my blog, have the "courage to use for the glory of God the fullness of language."
ReplyDeleteLove you dearly!