Two Ways News is a weekly collaboration between Phillip Jensen and Peter Jensen – a newsletter and podcast on a topic to encourage gospel thinking for today (subscribe at twoways.news).
This episode returns to the topic of words, focussing on how they create and operate in relationships and how they are distorted and politicised by suspicious people.
The previous episode is The Power of Words. The next episode is The Goodness of God.
WORDS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Words that bring life, order, freedom and intimacy
Phillip Jensen: Peter, you were away last time, so I spoke on the subject of words and on the nature of censorship because of the power of words. I came to it because of Genesis 1. God creates by his words. When you come across to the New Testament, we find that God created by his word, but his word is his Son, and the Greek word is “logos.” We know from John 1 that this “logos” that was with God and was God, became flesh and dwelt amongst us. How does this help us understand the world, Jesus, and his place in the world?
Peter Jensen: It’s impossible to imagine a Bible without John 1, especially those opening words in John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were created through him.
The word “logos” itself, if you come at it from the Greek, is not just “word”; it also has the idea of reason, rationality, and order behind it. Without order, there is no such thing as freedom. So, the Creator God himself comes amongst us, the Word of God, and brings order into a world that is chaotic because of human sin.
Phillip: What do you mean, without order, there’s no freedom? That is the opposite of what most people think. Most people think order is government regulations, control, and lack of freedom.
Peter: True freedom requires order. If you’re going to play tennis, you need a net, and you need lines, and then you’re free to play. Trains are built to run on rails, and human beings are built for order. Good order is essential because it’s only if you have anarchy that you won’t have freedom. Anarchy is horrendous. If everyone does what they want to do, that takes away the freedom from so many people. What we need is an ordered society, and then you can have true freedom. It is when you put yourself under the lordship of Christ that you find the freedom of being a human being. Jesus said, “I’ve come to set you free.”
Phillip: What is the connection between freedom and reason and logos and word?
Peter: I’m trying to find how the connection is between, say, reason and rationality, and I’ve brought in the word order because I think that’s the impact of it. That seems to me to be the impact of it. Now, however, if you think of it purely from the point of view of the Old Testament itself, the word of God plays such an important part, as you pointed out from Genesis 1. Relationships depend upon words. If you are deaf, or if you live with someone who’s deaf, you will understand how difficult that is. We often think a blind person needs our sympathy, but a deaf person also needs as much sympathy because you are cut off from the world around you. You go into a cafe and have a cup of coffee, but you can’t actually hear what’s going on. It’s immensely frustrating. Words are essential to good relationships.
Phillip: Can you think without words? Or do you think without words?
Peter: I suspect that when I think I put it into words if a thought comes, I virtually instantly turn it into words. But what about you?
Phillip: I can’t think without words.
Peter: Okay, I’m always thinking in words. Let’s assume that we are characteristic of many people, if not all people. Again, if you are nonverbal, it would be very hard to think rationally.
It is astonishing that God is a speaking God. He doesn’t have to speak to us. He could remain silent. I always think that his speech to us, recorded again and again in the Old Testament and then the New, is a sign of tender humility on his part. Like an incarnation, a bringing of himself into our very world, using an instrument as difficult as human language. Human language has its flaws and its difficulties, and he is prepared to use human language in order to have a proper relationship with us.
Phillip: He could create the world by just doing things without telling us, without speaking. But Genesis 1 is making it clear that “let there be, and there was” all came by him speaking. Psalm 33:6 speaks of him creating the heavens and the world by his word.
By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made.
It is very hard to have a relationship with people without words. When you’ve got a different language, it’s hard to relate. A key element of culture is that we think alike. If you have a different language, it’s hard to think alike. The flip side of it is the Tower of Babel. When God wishes to bring judgment on humanity and scatter humanity, he just changes our languages.
Peter: If you wish to punish someone, one of the most effective means of punishing them is to remain silent in their presence. When you refuse to speak to someone, you are sending them to hell, giving the cold shoulder. It is exquisitely painful.
Phillip: Solitary confinement has that effect.
Peter: The prison system in the 19th century would often put someone into solitary confinement, which was hellish and unjust. We do need speech. And the God we know, because of his humble tenderness, speaks to us. Then, amazingly, his word comes among us, full of grace and truth, and dwells among us. It has all those connotations of relationship and of power. To be able to create by simply saying a word is a sign of extraordinary power. God creates out of nothing and simply by speaking it into existence. Then, in his humility, the word becomes flesh and dwells among us, full of grace and truth. And we know his name, Jesus.
Phillip: There are two big doctrines that I’d like you to reflect further on. One is a doctrine of religious language, and the other is a doctrine of the incarnation. Take the religious language first. All kinds of people say you can’t talk about God, or God speaks in his silence, or that any affirmation or proposition you make about God, can’t be right. But the fact that God created us in his image means there is communication available in language. We can make affirmations about God in language because God relates to us by language.
Peter: Out of his grace and kindness, God speaks to us in words that we can both understand and trust.
Phillip: This marks out Christianity and the Bible from mysticism or idolatry. I get in touch with God through the Bible. We get to know God by listening to him speak to us and by our speaking to him. It’s very different.
Peter: Mysticism is typically human. It is saying that we have the ability to get in touch with spiritual things. It’s a technique, of course, but we can do this. It’s not recognizing that God comes to us rather than the other way around. Mysticism appears to be available only to a certain group of people. What I love about the Bible is that it has the same message for everybody. I have a message from God that is exactly the same as the message from God you have. It is for everyone, and it is the one that really matters.
Phillip: We relate to God in a personal relationship because it is in language. Any non-language mystical apprehension of the divine is more of a force than of a person: “May the force be with you, Luke.”
In relating to God, I’m relating to a person who has come to us, which therefore is foundational for the doctrine of the Incarnation.
Peter: One of the most important moments of such revelation is the disclosure by God of his name. Names are a very important part of language. If you’re pulled over by the police, the temptation is to give them a false name because they can’t get to know you. However, when you give someone your name, you are giving them access to you. If you think about the humility, the grace of God, when he announces his name to Moses, and then when he comes amongst us and he is Jesus, that is an astonishing thing for God to do and integral to human language.
Phillip: My Christian name was given to be used in relationships of friendship and love and affection. God gives us his “Christian name.” His very Son, His very self, comes amongst us. This is so different from idolatry, with the many gods of the ancient world.
1 Corinthians 12:1-3 says an extraordinary thing:
Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is accursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Holy Spirit.
The idols are mute. “Dumb” is a better word because dumb has two meanings in English. It means they’re stupid, and it means they don’t speak. Whereas “mute” just means they don’t speak. But the God of the Bible is a speaking God. The gods of idolatry never speak. They don’t move; they don’t do anything, but they don’t speak. “And you were led astray, however you were led.” It is the attempt to try and capture the idea that you were led like a prisoner, led off to imprisonment, or kidnapped. In idolatry, you were taken captive to something less than yourself. It was dumb. It was mute. Christianity comes from the Spirit of God’s Word. We say what we believe, that is, “Jesus is Lord.” To say, “Jesus is Lord,” requires the Holy Spirit to teach me that truth. That’s what Christians are about: speaking.
Peter: The Trinity is not mentioned in Genesis 1. We’re introduced to the One God. And that’s immensely important because, in a world of many gods, one God who has made all things and who rules over all things is this gospel message. It’s extraordinary, this good news that shapes the world. When it comes to the New Testament, there is this One God who is three persons in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. The Spirit is mentioned, of course, but it could just be the breath of God. It’s only in the New Testament that we see, as much as we can see as human beings, the wonder and glory of this One God who is infinitely more God-like than we could possibly imagine. But God very carefully assures us there is only one God and then tells us more about his inner self.
Phillip: Now this Spirit of God at work, in the declaration of God’s words, means that the people speak from God as the Spirit carries them to do this. But the Spirit of God also enables us to have a relationship with God. The trouble with words is the capacity for humans to twist them. The New Testament speaks of that in 2 Peter 3, of people twisting words to their own destruction. And there’s mention in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy about not arguing about words but listening to healthy words. But the Spirit inspires the listener both to hear and to speak, doesn’t he?
Peter: There’s this wonderfully paradoxical phrase in the epistle of James where he says, “Be quick to listen.” We’re quick to speak; we’re quick to do a lot of things, but listening is passive. It is immensely important that we do listen to each other. I suspect there are many people who would say no one ever listens to them. But it is so sad that we don’t listen to each other. If you want to hear the Word of God, you must listen to the Word of God.
Phillip: And God enables us to listen to him because it’s in a relationship we hear and understand, isn’t it?
Peter: Absolutely. So you won’t hear someone you’re very angry with. It’s very difficult to hear your enemy, and you tend to put things into their words. But what we need is someone who will draw us into fellowship with God, and then we hear his word, and that someone is the Holy Spirit.
Phillip: The relationship seems to be important in terms of the whole concept of postmodernism and deconstructionism and, in a sense, the Marxist dream, where distrust of power lies in every non-relationship. Because I distrust you, I don’t listen to what you say. I deconstruct what you say and come up with what I think you are doing to manipulate me. So I don’t hear the message of what you’re saying.
Peter: We need to be listening to the words themselves and being fair to the words themselves, even when they’re the words of an enemy. We should take them and take them at their face value in the way in which you would wish to be treated yourself. Then we can disagree with them.
Phillip: But it’s much easier when you have a relationship of trust. I heard a comedian talk about sarcasm the other day and suggest that sarcasm is not a low form of wit. Sarcasm is a very good form of wit when the relationship is a trusting one. But when there is no trust in the relationship, sarcasm is cruel and nasty. The very same sentence can be used in such cruelty. The more postmodern we become in our language, the less humour works.
Peter: It is a terrible tragedy if you can’t laugh.
Phillip: I love humour. Fawlty Towers was a very funny kind of show on television some years ago. In it, John Cleese mimicked the Hitler salute and mimicked the goose-stepping. It was one of the most powerful anti-Nazi, anti-Hitler forms of communication, but it’s illegal there. You’re not allowed to do Nazi salutes, even as a send-up. I don’t know whether you can watch the show anymore because we think we can sanitize language. But sanitizing language, because we’re afraid of it, I suspect, doesn’t work. Words change meaning over time, but people politicize the changing of meaning.
Peter: I can’t call myself by my Christian name. By the time the words Christian name came into existence, people weren’t thinking particularly of them as Christian. It was just a word. But it was a dangerous word. It suggested that everyone had to have a Christian name. Similarly, some historians tried to change B.C. and A.D. into the riotously funny B.C.E. and C.E. It is ludicrous because then you can’t mention that Christ is the hinge of history.
Phillip: It works on exactly the same dates, even though there’s no such thing as a common era.
Let’s close off this discussion by looking at Psalm 119, which is all about the Word of God, and verse 18 reminds me:
Open my eyes that I may behold the wondrous things out of your law.
It’s a relationship of trusting God, wanting to know what God says, and having his Spirit at work in us so that we may know and understand him.
