One of the problems in modern popular theological discussions, books, etc is a lazy use of the English language. We use "buzzwords" that often muddy the waters by not being defined.
A perfect example is the video "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus." The problem is that this statement is self defeating. Loving Jesus is a religious decision, but you hate religion... Here's the definition of the word religion from my Webster's dictionary:
religion, n
1: service and worship of God
2: set or system of religious beliefs
Any problem with that definition fellow Christians? We serve and worship God, and we have a set/system of religious beliefs. And if I love Jesus, ie: Worship Jesus, then by definition I am religious.
What could the creator of that video have said instead? I hate hypocrisy but love Jesus or I hate legalism but love Jesus. I get the spirit of the video and think the overall message is correct (although the theology he espouses in the video is inadvertently legalistic because it does not rightly divide Law and Gospel), but he needs to correctly use language. At risk of making references to The Giver, "precision of language" is need when entering theological discussion. Language is a gift God has given us to communicate.
God has given us a bunch of words about Himself in the Bible. Use those words. Jesus stands against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who attempted to follow the Law of God by a system of building laws around the Laws, when in fact they are still breaking the Law. Jesus gets to the heart (literally) of the issue: we are sinners not because we sin, but rather sin because we are sinners. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus exposits the Moral Law and essentially condemns every deed, word, and thought that is not in conformity to the Law. The Pharisees were actually un-righteous in their deeds because although on the outside they were righteous and in conformity to the Law, their hearts were still wicked and their actions tainted with sin.
But I digress.
We must be careful to define our words. Words have meanings inside of contexts. This is especially observable when the average pulpit jockey tries to use Logos to wow his hearers with his knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. It goes something like this:
"See this word? In the Greek that word actually means ______ and in ancient usage, this was a reference to ____, and so what Paul/Jesus/David/etc is actually telling us is that _____."
The problem is a linguistic error. He has taken a single word, read a definition into the text in order to make his point, and seems to prove without a doubt what he said was true. The problem is that words have meanings in contexts along with their definitions. If I say a sentence that contained the word "up", and without seeing the sentence you determined that I was talking about up North, you could be seriously wrong! I could be talking about when I woke up the other day. See what I mean? This is why unless you know Greek or Hebrew it is best to stay away from bible software that has Greek&Hebrew definitions. It gives you the feeling that you "know" a language without actually knowing it. Instead, he should have done his Greek or Hebrew work, then used a good English translation to work through the text, maybe occasionally talking about an untranslatable word, definition, etc.
One thing you can do in a situation such as this is to put the new definition in and see if it works. So, to use my example, if the sentence is "I was waking up yesterday morning to go on a run," and the preacher says that "up" means "north" in the original Jonahish (my language of choice) and proceeds to elaborate on his vacation up North to Canada last Summer, go back to see if the sentence works with the word change. Does, "I was waking North yesterday morning to go on a run," make any sense? No it doesn't.
Words have meanings in contexts. It is our job as Christians engaging the Bible and culture in discussion to use language as a tool to share the Gospel. And one way we can do a better job of that is by being careful of the words we use.
I have wandered as only my brain can on such topics... I hope this benefits you.
Sola Gratia,
- Jonah