Sunday, November 13, 2011

Christian language

I can't seem to find it but I'm pretty sure I wrote something about my desire to speak plainly in front of my non-Christian friends. Praise God I've more or less got there. Now I want to have the courage to use Christian language. I want to be free to use words like "forgiveness", "sin", "reconciliation", "resurrection" and "grace", instead of always avoiding them or translating them into ordinary language.

I find encouragement from the apostles who adapted the content of their preaching to their Gentile audiences, but didn't necessary adapt their language. So for example, Peter spoke simply about "the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all" and about how Jesus "is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead . . . . everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:36, 42-43).

 I want to be someone who in conversation will sometimes uses phrases like, "the living God", "message of light", and even perhaps, "judge the world with justice" (Acts 14:15; 26:23; 17:31). I wouldn't want it to be very often, but I would like it to be there.

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