Language and the Art of Manipulation

When language is used to manipulate others in order to do your bidding or to force/influence them to believe something that you do it borders on witch-craft. We have all known people who can say just the right thing, but every other aspect of their being suggests that they are being manipulative and that their heart is not in a noble place.

When we consider the linguistics of Christianity it should not be in order to get people to believe what we believe and to become what we have become. Instead we should consider what our own words tell us about our own limitations and convictions. We should not consider our language for persuasion of others, so much as for persuasion of our own souls. For from the heart and tongue come words that should be shepherded and watched and guarded.

Luke 6:45
A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.

Matthew 15:18
But evil words come from an evil heart and defile the person who says them

James 1:26
If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

James 3:2
We all make many mistakes, but those who control their tongues can also control themselves in every other way.

1 Peter 3:10
For the Scriptures say, "If you want a happy life and good days, keep your tongue from speaking evil, and keep your lips from telling lies.

For sure, we should guard our tongue and seriously consider what comes out when it has the possibility of causing some to stumble, others to be cut too deeply, and yet others be offended.

It is because we love others that we consider the Linguistics of Christianity. We want to bless rather than curse, to encourage rather than discourage, to gently rebuke rather than be judgmental without having love. Because we love others we consider them over ouselves. God is the only one who will change hearts, and since he wants us to be His voice in many instances, we must carefully guard the gates of our mouth and learn to speak the language of love, justice, mercy, forgiveness, beauty & truth. And in many aspects it will be how we say things that communicate these values in the Christian and secular community.

Missional vs Attractional Language

Is it really all just semantics?

Attractional Church:

Mindset: We own the turf, we would love to have you on our terms. Come on is and check it out, we have great programs for you. We are a welcoming church concerned about the needs of every person who walks in that door. We have to present a good image before others so that His light will be made known. We are a city on a hill.

1. You really should go to church.
2. Will you come to this church event with us?
3. We have good programs at church for people struggling with drugs.
4. Did you know Jesus loves you?
5. Let me tell you about Christ.
6. Prayer: God help my friends in need want to come to church.
7. We need to have more events or services for people in our church.
8. Our church is the missionfield.



Missional Church:

Mindset: We are the aliens in our land, and we will come to them on thier terms so long as we can honor God in it. Go out into the world and be involved in the community in real and natural ways. You and your faithfulness to God is the program, and we will do all we can to help you in your growth. We are concerned with every one that will one day walk through God's kingdom doors. Our image will be of normal people in the normal process of God's sanctification. We are but lights in a city.

1. Can we hang out on Saturday.
2. Would you like to come over dinner tomorrow night?
3. Can I pray for your son who is struggling with drugs right now.
4. Did you guys know that me and my wife really love you guys, you are good friends.
5. I wasn't pressuring you about knowing Christ cause I hoped you would just see him in my life.
6. God help my church go out to my friends who are in need.
7. We need to go out and meet the needs in our community.
8. Our mission field is the neighborhood.

Affective Language Acquisition and Engle's Scale

Engle’s Stages of Conversion
-8 Awareness of supreme being – no knowledge of the gospel
-7 Initial awareness of the gospel
-6 Awareness of fundamentals of the gospel
-5 Grasp of implications of the gospel
-4 Positive attitude toward the gospel
-3 Personal problem recognition
-2 Decision to act
-1 Repentance and faith in Christ
0 Conversion
+1 Post-decision evaluation
+2 Incorporation into the body of Christ
+3 A lifetime of conceptual and behavioral growth in Christ

People are more willing to belong before they are willing to believe. At the early stage of sharing the gospel of Christ the language of Christianity must come at the basic levels. People can not understand words related to repentance, sanctification and redemption if they have not first heard and seen the words of love, kindness and acceptance. Even God's word suggests such things. His word says, "it is God's love that leads to repentance." Likewise it is our embracing words that will lead to the deeper things of the gospel, or good news. Paul recognized you first give milk to babies before you give them meat - and so he presented the words of the kingdom at different levels according to those he was ministering to.

Even modern physchologists like Maslow and Piaget recognized the different levels of cognitive and behavioral development patterns that are dependent on various stages of maturation and growth. In Maslow's hiearchy below you can see how he recognizes that basic needs such as physyical environment and security must come before people can develop normally socially and then start developing even further into understandings about who we are and who we were created to be.










Piaget also described three types of knowledge that children acquire:
1.) Physical knowledge - "knowledge about objects in the world, which can be gained through their perceptual properties,"
2.) Logical-mathematical knowledge - "abstract knowledge that must be invented."
3.) Social-arbitrary knowledge - "culture-specific knowledge learned from people within one's culture-group" (

In his theory he outlined the distinct areas of development that people must go through suggesting that without basic knowledge of the world in which you exist you will not be able to grasp the socialogical implications of both verbal and non-verbal concepts in a given culture.

This same gap that exists between the real world of unbelievers and those who are believers. Often times the "Social-arbitrary knowledge," or "culture-specific knowledge of a group of people (in this case Christians) is so thoroughly developed that they become completely alien to the rest of the world. Such Christians begin to unconsciously use terms and "Code," that only they (in the circle) can relate to since they have already learned the basic knowledge of the culture of Christianity. Those who profess a belief in evangelical Christianity have to then learn how to reframe their life, actions and speech in a way that is relevant to those who have not developed a grasp of such highly developed paradigms of culture. In other words, we must learn as Paul said, "To become all people to all people, so that by all means, some might be saved." This extends to even our very speech. Paul in his sermon at Mars Hill takes cultural icons of the age (gods and idols and the poets of the age) to make his case. He refers to the statue of the unknown God and to their poets who said, "We are his offspring," in order to speak at a level of culture that is relevant and meaningful to those he is reaching out to.

In "The Shaping of Things to Come," by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch they use the graph below to explain how non-believers must overcome the culture gap of God before they can cross the discipleship gap which all believers eventually must make.



If indeed people go through stages such as Engle suggests above, and there is plenty of practical and research from well respected phsycologists in their fields, then we must begin examining how and when we present the verbal and non-verbal cues of the kingdom of God. Even Jesus did it this way. When he insisted on talking to the young kids when his disciples were trying to shoo them away - he taught them both verbally and non-verbally that one's heart must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven. When he talked to the adulterous woman at the well he didn't enter the conversation with her sin and tell her that she must repent. Instead he addressed her at the physical level: will you get me water. Then he addressed her at the real life level of where she was: she had multiple husbands. He then addressed a real need of hers, which was to find satisfaction, to drink of all that is good. And he made such an offer to her, to drink of living water. It wasn't a Christian cliche at the time, it was an offer to meet a current need in her life.

We must as Christians consider our words. Our words may sometimes come from a point of need in our life, we who are mature Christians perhaps. But those we are encountering to not have the same needs. They may not need church right now, they may need someone to demonstrate God's love through kind words and non-verbal cues such as action and service. These socio-liguistic factors of concern shown on our face, and how we frame words and propositions may be the difference between us appearing repulsive in our pride and abstract "Church talk," or kind and gentle in our genunine concern for the basic needs of our nieghbor.

The Language of Life & Light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
---John 1:1-4

If language and words were with God (and were God) in the beginning and these words were the life and light of men then it becomes imperative that we learn how to speak the words of this same God. It is clear from this small bit of revelation that words have the power of creation, especially the words of God. God said, "and let there be light," and so it came to be.,

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
---Genesis 1:4

It was His words that separated the light from the dark. It was upon His word that each aspect of creation came to be, And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." - vs 6. "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." --vs 9. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." --vs11. And after each command of creation, there was a calling: "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." --vs 8. "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good" --vs 10.

Language has always been a powerful factor in creation. And though it is clear that langauges also have the power of life and light it also sometimes has the power of death as seen in curses, and judges orders for execution and even in Jesus's own example of when he cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit. Countless immigrants can tell you of the power of language for their own survival and how language has brought them from the dark into the light. Refugees escaping from countries where they have had no freeedom of religion and speech will testify to the power of language, and the necessity of learning the code of such safe harbors as America, England, Canada and Australia. For them language has meant death in their home countries when they mispoke, and in the countries they have escaped to language has been the key for freedom and a new life. A new light. Richard Lederer speaks about the power of language in his book "The Miracle of language." Richard Wright tells of the transforming power in his own life. As with all creation of language, some form of death must follow.

When the light was created by God's word, the days of darkness was numbered. Where before only darkness was on the face of the deep, now the dark was separated from the light. For those refugees who find freedom, tyranny meets it's end. Language, when used for light and life - has the affect of destroying darkness and death. Therefore, we must decide just how we will wield the sword of the spirit- the word. And this involved the tongue and the heart, and the spirit of God for those who claim to be Christians.

When we speak from our flesh, and our pride we speak death and darkness. Sometimes it is in our silence that we speak light and life. Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. " 1 Peter 3:10 For "He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile;" Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Even Jesus chose silence in some instance as he was lead by the spirit. The language of Christianity is sometimes bold and brash, and sometimes silence - each instance guided differently by the spirit.

Matthew 27:12 When Jesus was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" 14But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. The language of silence was leading to death, and this death leading to new words of life, such as words of forgiveness, 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do," and words of love, "John, this is your mother, mother, this is your son."

With every word we have the choice of life or death. The linguistics of Judeo-Christian tradition are consumated with words of life and words of death. Moses had that same choice. To curse and speak death, or to bless and choose life.

Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

So, we must learn how it is that we speak life. The words of life, the timing of life, the spirit lead words of life. That is the goal of this research and study in language. That we may more deeply realize that the medium is the message as Hirsch speaks in his book, "The Shaping of Things to Come."

May we be blessed as we study the beauty of language: the language and words that create life and light, the beauty of language that divided the darkness in two and brings healing and peace.

Amen.

Topics of Discussion

1. The language of the broken hearted
2. The language of the ones who have not seen that Jesus paid it all
3. The language of the legalists
4. The language of the liberal
5. The language of the "Churchianity."
6. The language of the world.
7. The language of St Paul
8. The language of the prophets
9. The language of the Bible
10.The language learning principals
a. age affects rate of learning
b. the importance of realia in the life of a Christian
c. the importance of low anxiety in language learning
d.
11.The language of confrontation
12.The language of love
13.The language of non-condemnation
14.The language of tongues
15.The language of Jesus
16.The language of racial concialiation
17.The language of stories and parables.
18.Missional vs Attractional Language