Our words and language matter. Many times our words do not land on “deaf ears.” Others hear our words. Others often react to our words. They react by agreeing and going along with what we say even to the point of trying to live out our words. Or they react negatively to our words and try to live as they have or live out the exact opposite of our spoken or written words.
Our faith is communicated by words. Even our deeds which can communicate our faith are many times preceded by words. Sometimes it is words of scripture, words of a sermon, words of prayer, words spoken in worship or sung to music, or the words of another that can strongly communicate our faith.
I sometimes think the most dangerous word used in “faith speech” can be the word “if.”If you love, if you believe, if you do or if you don’t do. Grammatically, if is a conjunction. You remember those from the 3rd grade. I would also say if is a propositional word, a transactional word. It proposes a deal. If assumes then. There will be a consequence if we act or fail to act in a particular manner. The consequence may be good or it may be bad.
We need to be careful when we use the word if in faith speech. Most times Christians use the word if it assumes a consequence from God. If we do something good, then God will love us and care for us. If we do something contrary to our faith, God will at the very least punish us in some way or, perhaps, even abandon us and cease to care for us. IF……
All of us who follow Jesus realize we have a great need to change. We have a need to change for ourselves, those in our lives, and we need to change to better align ourselves and our life to God’s will for us and for creation. But that if word messes with us. It gets there in our thought process, in our understanding of our relationship with God and even in our prayer life. We too often seem to think and act as though God will only truly and fully love us if we change. We need to drop that little two letter word in such thinking. God does not love us if we change. We need to substitute another word for if…..the word that. God loves us not if we change, but instead, so that we can change. One small word change makes quite a difference!
There is a purpose to God’s love for us, indeed. But God’s love is not the carrot hanging on the end of a stick out in front of us, exhausting us as we naively pursue it. God’s love is instead the engine behind us pushing us, making even uphill travel easier than we have a right to expect.
Maybe if we drop or at least judiciously employ that word if in our thinking about God and God’s relationship with us, ….if we do that, our understanding and appreciation for God and God’s love will have a new and greater perspective. Perhaps there is a place for if after all! That’s all, folks!