Sermon Tone Analysis
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Dead Words and Inspired Words
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
I kind of fancy myself as a wordsmith.
Now there’s a word that was little used until more recently.
The
origin of “wordsmith” began as an English word in the late 1800s, 1873 actually, when it first appeared.
It was
used to describe a person who works with words, much like a locksmith works with locks.
Words are
important.
Words have meaning and that meaning is transmitted to provide communication.
When words no
longer hold to their meaning, then communication is hampered and misunderstandings arise.
Words can incite anger or invoke passion.
They can bring people together or tear them apart.
Words
can uphold the truth or nurture a lie.
We use words to encompass history, to describe the natural universe, and
to form realistic visions of things outside our empirical world.
Words have a dramatic effect on what we know,
how we interact with people, and the decisions we ultimately make.
Words can influence us, inspire us, or just
as easily bring us to tears.
Words change our relationships, our demeanor, our entire system of beliefs, our
businesses and even our country’s direction by our voting on who will be in office based upon their words.
There are a number of words that we may have used a generation or so ago that are no longer in use,
such as hornswoggle, meaning to scam or con.
There’s a lot of hornswoggling going on these days.
Another
one is to twattle.
Do you know what that means?
To twattle is to chatter mindlessly or gossip.
A word I use
sometimes is facetious, which means flippant, as in someone giving a facetious remark.
Politicians can be
facetious, saying one thing with tongue in cheek, saying yes, but meaning no.
If you watch Judge Judy, you
have heard her use another word that only she uses anymore.
She’ll describe a mild altercation between parties
as a kerfuffle, which is someone making a commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views.
Words sometimes just fall out of use; they die.
English professor Anne Curzan knows that words in
English don’t last forever.
Writing in The Washington Post, she says that “word death” is a natural part of a
living language such as English.
“Ellen,” for example, used to mean courage, and now it is simply a woman’s
name.
Word death is part of the life cycle of any language.
But some words will never die, especially, the
words that are connected to Jesus, inspired by God, and useful to us as Christians.
The apostle Paul begins his second letter to Timothy by giving thanks for the young man’s faith, which
came to Timothy from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.
Paul reminds his younger colleague that
2
“God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2
Timothy 1:7).
These words changed my life.
In my teen years I was shy, especially around girls, and
backward.
What would one expect from a hayseed from Hornbrook!
I had good friends who invited me to
their church and young adults’ group; and in a Bible study, we came across this verse.
It hit me square between
my eyes.
How could I be so meek and backward and scared if God was in my life?
God did not give us a spirit
of cowardice, but a spirit of power, confidence and loving.
So here we are today.
Then, Paul stresses the importance of “the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ.”
He says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.”
Sacred writings have eternal importance, because they are connected to Jesus
Christ.
In addition, they are inspired by God; “God-breathed,” which comes from the Greek word theo-pneustos.
Theo means God; pneu (as in pneumonia) means air, such as in a pneumatic tool which is powered by
compressed air.
Scripture is God-air, or God-breathed, authored and empowered by no one less than God
Himself.
These writings are useful to us since they train us in righteousness and equip us for every good work.
Yes, some individual words will die along the way.
It’s natural.
In the King James Version of the Bible, some
verses are hard to understand, such as when Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “Suffer little children, and forbid
them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
What did suffer mean?
Did children have
to experience and endure hardship, preventing them from the company of Jesus?
Just the opposite.
Jesus was
saying, “Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them…” Individual words or their definitions will die, but
the message of Scripture continues to give us life.
So, how exactly does this work?
First, sacred Scripture is connected to Jesus.
No individual words of
the Bible are as important as Jesus, the One who is the Word of God in human form.
The Gospel of John tells
us that in “the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
… What has
come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
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