Christianity is a subculture, and with subculture comes shared phrases, jargon, and lingo.
I assume if you’ve found your way to this blog, you’ve had some experience with Christianese. I’ve been homeschooled by Christians, colleged by Christians, and employed by Christians. I’ve had a pretty good dose of the lingo.
I checked out a few of them to see if they (or the concepts behind them) show up in the Bible. Here’s what I found.
1. “I’m so humbled . . .”
This one is usually followed by some kind of awesome experience. It’s thrown around all the time. Search Twitter for #humbled, and you’ll see all sorts of weird, positive stuff that “humbles” people—stuff like having a hot wife, non-stop awesome days, speaking opportunities, and high follower counts.
But guess what? When Samson slaughtered 1,000 Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone, he didn’t say, “I’m so humbled to be the most powerful warrior in the known universe.” After Peter preached the gospel at Pentecost, he didn’t say, “So humbled to see 3,000 souls come to the Lord today—on my first try!”
This isn’t how the Bible talks about humility at all.
The root work for “humble” in the New Testament is ταπεινος (tapeinos), which means “lowly,” “modest,” or even “depressed” (2 Co 7:6). Humility is the inverse of arrogance.
When good things happen to you, do they bring you down? Probably not.
The Bible gives us two paths to humility:
- Humble ourselves now (Jam 4:10; 1 Pe 3:5–6).
- Get humbled later (Mt 23:12; Lk 14:11).
Obviously, it’s in our best interest to humble ourselves now, because being humbled isn’t a fun experience.
And here’s another thing: humility often has more to do with how we think of others than how we think of ourselves. Jesus sets the ultimate example of this humility:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Php 2:3–8)
So why talk about really awesome things as though they’re humbling? Maybe it’s an indirect way of noticing the greatness and goodness of God in our favorable circumstances. Maybe we try to avoid sounding arrogant—in which case, do we really need to share that information?
But you won’t find someone in the Bible having a terrific experience and then telling everyone how humbled they are by it.
Takeaway: when something makes you see yourself as less important, you’ve been humbled. Using “humbled” as a synonym for “thankful” or “excited” doesn’t make much biblical sense.
2. “Accountability partners”
This sort of Christian buddy system is simple: team up with someone else and hold each other accountable. Bust each other’s chops and encourage one another to be more like Jesus. There are a few slices of Scripture that support this idea of peer-to-peer accountability:
- “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy” (Pr 27:6).
- “Oil and perfume make the heart glad so a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend” (Pr 27:9).
- “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Pr 27:17).
- Paul tells the believers at Thessalonica to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Th 5:11).
However, you won’t find a passage in the Bible that requires Christians to team up with an “accountability partner.” There’s no inspired, prescribed program for what that looks like in Scriptures.
Takeaway: it’s in your best interest to find friends who challenge you, but there’s no biblical “accountability partner” model or mandate.
3. “Speaking truth into your/my life”
I’m not entirely sure what this means. I’ve heard it in reference to honesty, wisdom, and even prophecy. Most of my friends and family use this saying when they’re describing a relationship with someone in authority over them (a pastor or mentor) or a close friend. It seems like a nice thought, and we have examples of Christians giving good advice to other Christians:
- Paul charged Philemon to forgive his runaway slave and accept him back as a brother.
- Agabus, the prophet, warned Paul that the Jews would capture him in Jerusalem (Ac 21:10–11).
- John encouraged Gaius to continue walking in truth and showing hospitality to other Christians, even though one of Gaius’ local church leaders opposed it (3 John).
But the “speak truth into life” line doesn’t show up in the Bible. Of course, the Bible has several commands to speak the truth (Ex 20:16; Zech 8:16; Eph 4:15, 25; Col 3:9).
Takeaway: tell the truth (and make sure it’s the truth) before applying it to someone else’s life.
4. “Quiet time”
This is that time Christians are supposed to spend with God. Quiet times are for prayer, reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture, and other quality-time-with-God activities. It seems most people do this in the mornings, alone. Like accountability partnerships, this discipline has some good Scriptural support:
- David wants to hear God’s lovingkindness in the mornings, and learn the ways in which he should walk (Ps 143:8).
- Jesus recommends that his disciples pray in solitude, instead of in public (Mt 6:6).
So although you won’t find the phrase “quiet time” in the Bible, there’s good reason to engage in this.
Takeaway: spend time alone in prayer and study of the Word—the more, the better.
So what?
Not all of these phrases are bad. In fact, I’m pretty comfortable with using a few of them. We just need to remember a few things:
- The things we say about Christian living should be consistent with the Bible.
- Those who aren’t very familiar with the Bible will assume our jargon is based in the Bible.
- The better we know the Bible, the better our speech can reflect it.
What did I miss?
These Christianese terms are just a few that came to my mind this weekend: what are some of the ones you hear all the time? Are they scriptural?
Let me know in the comments!
Thank you for the article. I would like to add some examples of “accountability partners.”
Judges 1:3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
There is of course other history with this pairing of Judah and Simeon. The Bible says that the tribe of Judah’s land was too big for them, so Simeon was given land in the midst of Judah’s land. Why would Judah have too much land? Probably, he received extra land because Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh did not take their inheritance in the Promised Land. Ephraim and Dan are described as having too little land, but they also did not wrest control of the land that they were given from the Canaanites. Unfortunately, Simeon’s identity seems to have fused with Judah, but that may have been a blessing for his tribe in disguise so that he was not carried away so much in Jeroboam’s apostasy.
Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come.
The Lord Jesus Christ (God) sent disciples out in groups of 2.
Acts 13:2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
The Holy Spirit (God) chose 2 men for His work.
Acts 15:39-40 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
Despite the disagreement that resulted in Paul and Barnabas separating from each other. Each man took someone else with him, so there were now 4 missionaries when before that there were only 2. The local church followed the earlier guidance of the Holy Spirit and sent out Paul and Silas, a group of 2.
Anyway, both in the Old and New Testaments, it is a Biblical principle. The church practiced it, but I am not aware of there being a doctrine anywhere in the Epistles commanding it. That is just something to consider, but these pairings were definitely more than just “accountability partners.” The tribes of Judah and Simeon were fighting together. The missionaries were working together in the Lord’s harvest. Many of these men were unmarried that we are talking about. Things change when men have wives because now they are yoked together to do the Lord’s work unless of course they are unequally yoked.
let’s throw another one in there. this particular word is used in regards to church strategies and big ideas that are taken from, maybe, another probably larger church. it it is also used by some to describe aspects of or even the full human who jesus was. the word?
model.
a model is a crudely glued plastic toy miniature version of a working specimen with sticker decals, that breaks when you play with it the first time, not unlike every piece of ikea furniture ever made.
is it wrong, exactly? no. is it even somehow helpful and descriptive enough to get the point across. yes. i hear/read it so much, that i use it now. but when i do use it, i run through a room full of “models” with my shoes off, for self castiagation.
“But when I do use it, I run through a room full of ‘models’ with my shoes off, for self castigation.”
HA! For your sake, I hope the church doesn’t start overusing the word “Lego.”
I like your takeaway for humility. I think another misconception is that if you’re humbling yourself, you can’t really think “highly” of yourself in the sense of having confidence. With your explanation, it’s possible to be both confident in your abilities and humbled in regards to holding others in a higher esteem than yourself. Although, one isn’t often feeling confident if they’re “depressed” (one of the possible definitions of humility that you mentioned).
Thanks! Agreed: humility and confidence aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, I think humble people use their strengths (which they’re confident they have) for the good of others (whom they deem more important than themselves).
Ooh, I like that way of looking at humility. I’ll have to remember that!
Thanks, Brittany! That’s very encouraging to hear. =)