If you spend most of you time around people who identify themselves as Christians, you may not even notice. However, if you are unfamiliar with Christianity or have not spent much time in church, you may be thinking, Christians say some confusing things. For the most part, these code words/phrases have become ingrained in our daily talk similar to how someone says fiesta when referring to a party. We don’t even consider our language may be unclear or misunderstood. For example, consider the word “convict.”

Convict (verb) – for the Holy Spirit to make us aware of our sin.

A few weeks ago, I remarked, “That really convicted me.” It was a shortcut and actually kept me from more accurately stating, “I really fall short of God’s standard in that area.”

Hmmmm, what does God’s standard mean? God’s standard is a pattern for walking the Christian life.

Walking the Christian life …a figure of speech meaning following Jesus and the example He set in everyday life, gaining victory over sin.

Victory

Sin

The web of words just gets bigger. In fact, I think the enemy is attacking me.

At times we use words directly taken from the Bible, and want to communicate Biblical ideas, yet these phrases don’t make sense if taken literally in our language today. My (nearly) daughter-in law shared an example from her profession in mental health. Her supervisor encountered a client who used many Christian code words during her intake assessment, several times mentioning she was “under the blood.” The supervisor questioned my daughter-in-love if this woman was grounded in reality or was this an indicator the client was dealing with serious mental health issues?

Does the world think we are foolish because we believe in Jesus, who is completely God, yet came to earth as a man, died on a cross and was raised from the dead? Maybe they do; however, I want others to observe I am outrageously passionate about my love for Jesus and everyone else, not that I say peculiar things. Yes, I will probably use many of those code phrases again this week, but instead of just spouting words on auto-pilot, I want to consider how my speech is heard, not only by those who know the language but by those who don’t. Perhaps, it is the difference between preaching to the choir and testifying to the world.

Don’t forget to bring your sword to fellowship. 😊