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WORDS, WORDS AND WORDS

by Ong Kok Bin

Hagar the Horrible¹ was totally engrossed in guzzling down his chunk of lamb shank (or, was it turkey) when his mother-in-law dropped by for a surprise visit.

Helga, his long-suffering but beloved wife, shot at him, "Mother thinks your table manners are atrocious!"

Stopped in his tracks, Hagar gave a quizzical look. "Is 'atrocious' good or bad?" he asked with baby-faced innocence.

Now Hagar wasn't 'the Horrible' without due reason. He was the all-plundering-thieving-and-murderous Viking. Table manners just weren't his cup of tea; much less, niceties about words, or philology or semantics.

But there are people who make their living from (and with) words: linguists, philologists, semanticians, lexicographers, thespians, rhetoricians, diplomats, negotiators, writers, lawyers, teachers, theologians, and preachers (yes, preachers too and they perhaps more than the others have 'a way with words').

Words are important. To be more precise, the meanings of words (and their nuances) are important - for words carry and convey ideas and human communication is about ideas. A word or a group of words strung together can move a whole class of people, energise them or demoralise them, stir them to great and meaningful action or stun them into a bag of rotting Irish potatoes. Martin Luther's 'I have a dream' still rings out stirringly to a whole class of under-privileged black Americans. On the other hand, 'Liverpool lost' is like a thousand knives plunged into my whole being.

More pertinently, words can influence a person's religious faith; and within the Christian context, words can give rise to a whole set of doctrines, rightly or wrongly. It is no surprise then that we should read in Paul's first epistle to Timothy about a group of 'false teachers' who had developed 'an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words' (6:3-5). These false teachers had 'opposing ideas', the so-called 'knowledge' (6:20). To win adherents to their ideas, they battled over, about, and with words.

Now, this is not to say that words aren't worth the fight. When a word is crucial to proper and biblical doctrine, then we must insist on the word and its proper meaning, usage and practice. But if it is just 'an unhealthy interest' that gives rise to strife and division, to pitched battles and 'hot air', then it is best to desist from such unhealthy engagement.

As Paul advises Timothy, "Turn away from godless chatter" (6:20).

¹A cartoon character by Chris Browne

Short-Takes
1. Conspiratorial Misrule
2. Redeeming the Time
3. It's an Oily Business
4. Lifting Holy Hands in Prayer
5. A Gracious People
6. Words, Words and Words
7. I Know Whom I Have Believed
8. Of Oddballs and Heroic Fights
9. The People Delivered a Tsunami
10. Joy in Troubled Times

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