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Christians are a peculiar people with a peculiar vocabulary.

We talk about “sin”. We use words like “repentance” and “gospel.” We take common words like “sin” and “faith,” but fill them with meaning that flows from the Bible.

Other Christian words are important too:

  • Trinity
  • Justification
  • Sanctification
  • Imputation

Whenever we seek to proclaim the gospel in a way that is culturally understandable, we face the problem of our peculiar vocabulary.

Some Christians believe that we need to rid our speech of “Christianese.” Let’s root out our Christian lingo and speak in a way that anyone can understand! If the term “justification” is incomprehensible to most people, let’s do away with the word and just use the concept.

I sympathize with the desire to make the gospel understandable to those in our culture who are unfamiliar with our peculiar vocabulary. But I also think that we need these distinctive words. Why? Because our vocabulary reminds us who we are. Besides, we use specific and peculiar language for other areas of our life too.

Several years ago, when I was working in my dad’s print shop, I used terms like “glossy,” “cover,” “80#,” “varnish.” I also knew that ink colors were called PMS. Yet there were times that we would speak of PMS colors in front of guests, and I would feel the need to explain what these colors were (so as to make sure they weren’t thinking of a more common understanding of PMS!).

Baseball is not commonly played in Europe. When my wife first attended a ballgame with me, she was introduced to terms like “double header” and “pinch hitter,” “foul ball” and “home run”. If I hadn’t explained these concepts to her, she would have nodded her head but not known what we were talking about.

It would be foolish for me to advocate changing all of baseball’s terminology so that Europeans can more easily understand the game. Instead, Europeans who move to America deserve an initiation into this sport so that they can comprehend the language, understand the purpose of each term, and enjoy the game with us.

In the same way, we shouldn’t lazily rely on Christianity’s peculiar vocabulary without explanation. Neither should we abandon important words for the sake of cultural relevancy. We need to take the hard road – explaining Christian concepts to outsiders in a way that can be understood. Then, we need to initiate them into the Christian community where these words are used and celebrated.

Maintaining our peculiar vocabulary while at the same time seeking to make our words understandable is beneficial to both the Christian and the non-Christian.

It’s beneficial to Christians because it challenges us to think more deeply about the terminology that gives expression to our faith. If we tend to rely on Christian lingo, we need to be forced out of our comfortable ghetto of word usage, to to figure out what we mean by these concepts before we can teach them to others.

Try defining “sin” without using the word. Define “glory” in a way that makes sense biblically. Explain “justification” to someone who’s never heard the gospel. Until you yourself know what these words mean, you won’t be able to explain the concept to others.

It’s beneficial for non-Christians because we are able to present Christian truth in a culturally comprehensible way, and yet we are not sacrificing the distinctiveness of our speech. We are initiating them into a new way of speaking, helping them not only walk the walk, but talk the walk as well.

Our purpose in maintaining our distinct vocabulary is not so we can check off boxes on a vocab matching test. It’s so that we will know who we are, know what God has done, and fulfill our mission as his called-out people.

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