"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Jesus
How literally do you take people when they talk to you? How literal do you tend to be when you talk? I've had a number of occasions over the years that have made me think about how we often use words that carry different meanings, and how much we say things that we don't mean to be taken extremely literally.
For example, this morning my wife finished with her shower, dried off, and then commented to me that she forgot to turn the thermostat up for some warmer air. I happened to be lying in bed at that time, and I continued to do so. A few moments later, she asked me specifically if I would go turn up the thermostat so that she wouldn't be cold. As I thought about it, she didn't literally ask me to turn up the heat when she made her first comment, but it seems that her intent was for me to go do that. However, literal me took her statement as merely a statement, which meant that I waited until she literally asked me to go turn up the heat.
This seems to be something we do quite a bit. We'll say something and hope that the other person responds, even though we may not have asked them to do something specifically. A comment like "The trash is overflowing" is far different from "Will you take the trash out?" If we look at the first one literally, there is only a statement of fact. The second one is the one that contains a specific request in it.
In my line of work, I have encountered something like this that comes up with some degree of regularity. A person or a group of people want something specific of me, but, rather than directly approaching with what they want, they drop a few hints about what they want, and hope that I will catch on. That kind of approach leaves all sorts of room for misunderstanding and confusion. I have become convinced that a more direct approach, a more literal one, clears up potential confusion.
Yet, when it comes to matters of faith, we can also have a difficult time with this whole literal or not discussion. Take the verse that I listed at the top. How literally do we take this? If we take it completely literally, all followers of Jesus "live" by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Does this mean that we, in a literal sense, eat the pages of the Bible? Not only are they not very nutritional, but the ink might cause problems. Is it merely a figure of speech? How literally we take words such as these determines much about what we think about God and life.
How literally do you take people when they talk to you? How literal do you tend to be when you talk? I've had a number of occasions over the years that have made me think about how we often use words that carry different meanings, and how much we say things that we don't mean to be taken extremely literally.
For example, this morning my wife finished with her shower, dried off, and then commented to me that she forgot to turn the thermostat up for some warmer air. I happened to be lying in bed at that time, and I continued to do so. A few moments later, she asked me specifically if I would go turn up the thermostat so that she wouldn't be cold. As I thought about it, she didn't literally ask me to turn up the heat when she made her first comment, but it seems that her intent was for me to go do that. However, literal me took her statement as merely a statement, which meant that I waited until she literally asked me to go turn up the heat.
This seems to be something we do quite a bit. We'll say something and hope that the other person responds, even though we may not have asked them to do something specifically. A comment like "The trash is overflowing" is far different from "Will you take the trash out?" If we look at the first one literally, there is only a statement of fact. The second one is the one that contains a specific request in it.
In my line of work, I have encountered something like this that comes up with some degree of regularity. A person or a group of people want something specific of me, but, rather than directly approaching with what they want, they drop a few hints about what they want, and hope that I will catch on. That kind of approach leaves all sorts of room for misunderstanding and confusion. I have become convinced that a more direct approach, a more literal one, clears up potential confusion.
Yet, when it comes to matters of faith, we can also have a difficult time with this whole literal or not discussion. Take the verse that I listed at the top. How literally do we take this? If we take it completely literally, all followers of Jesus "live" by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Does this mean that we, in a literal sense, eat the pages of the Bible? Not only are they not very nutritional, but the ink might cause problems. Is it merely a figure of speech? How literally we take words such as these determines much about what we think about God and life.
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