Sometimes Christians say funny things in the church. It’s like we have our own language. And it often sounds creepy to non-church goers. We mean well, but sometimes we say things in church that just don’t make sense. We’ll admit, we’ve said these phrases many times ourselves, but it’s good to stop and really think about what we mean. Here are a few of our favorites with a translation for your convenience.
1. You don’t go to church, you are the church
I am not a building. What we mean by this is we are the body. Okay, that’s weird too. Let me try again. The Church is not a building, the church is a living organism that is Christ’s body. Okay, still not helping here. Maybe we should come back to this one another time. Let’s move on.
Good people of Oz, this is not true. There is no Yellow Brick Road that swiftly leads us to the Emerald City if we follow all the rules. Yes, God calls us to give and to tithe. And yes, he blesses those who give. But no, your amount of blessing received does not equal what you give. That would be works over faith and would infer that we must earn our salvation when it’s already been given to us.
This is my biggest pet peeve. And I just used it above! I wrote about it here. If you used the word “blessed” more than four times in the last paragraph you just spoke, you used it three and a half times too many. “Blessed” means to find favor or to have “self-contained happiness.” Greg Laurie writes, “the idea is that our happiness is independent of our circumstances. It is self-contained, meaning that regardless of what is happening to us externally, we can be truly happy internally.” Your new car does not make you holy. Your new baby might – I’ll give you that one. It’s good to be thankful, but when we overuse the word bless, it can make others feel like they’re not as blessed, happy or as fortunate as we are. It can also give material things more power than we intend.
Are we going by Leviticus 19:28 for this one? “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.” If so, the verse just before it says, “You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.” It also mentions only eating what’s kosher. So … bummer for everyone who’s ever had a hair cut or shaved or eaten meat. We’re taking an Old Testament verse out of context just a bit. This passage is dealing with pagan rituals of people living near the Israelites. Also, we’re not under Old Testament law anymore.
Where do we get this saying? I don’t think it’s in the Bible because Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Lost people don’t typically help themselves. Jesus healed the sick, blind and hurting. Do you remember what he called the people who thought they could help themselves to heaven? White washed tombs. I think I’ll pass on that.
