I teach languages. I love languages. I’m sorry if you don’t find this as exciting as I do. It never ceases to amaze me that God uses language to communicate to people. When I read the opening words in Genesis, ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light’, I get so excited. Of all the ways God could have used to create, He used words! And Jesus is called the ‘Word’ (John 1) the ‘Final Word’, as Michael Card calls Him!
So today as I was continuing to read Eugene Peterson’s commentary on Ephesians (‘Practise Resurrection’), I was stopped in my tracks by his discussion of the three types of language used in the church:
(1) kerygmatic (preaching)
(2) didactic (teaching)
(3) paracletic (comforting, ‘spiritual direction’)
I was very familiar with the first two: most of us who have been in church for any length of time are. They are the primary ways we use to preach the Gospel and to teach people the truths of God’s Word. But Eugene Peterson goes on to talk about paraclesis (the word paraclete referring to the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel, translated as ‘Advocate’, ‘Counsellor’, ‘Comforter’, ‘Friend’ in our Bibles), the ‘quieter voice’ which can take place anywhere, ‘conversation directed to the insights and decisions, the behaviour and practices, that emerge from hearing the preached good news and learning the truth of the Scriptures as they then get prayed and embodied in my life where I am now.’
This language, Eugene Peterson says, “is used with men and women who have already received the word of preached salvation and have been instructed in the teaching of the law, but who are in need of comfort or encouragement or discernment in the muddled details of dailiness.”
Isn’t that what we all need… and what we all, by the grace of God, can give? Daily living can be so muddled and we need to receive that language which clarifies, illuminates, gives us direction in the actual practice of living. It has to be more than theory. “Paracletic language is the language of the Holy Spirit, a language of relationship and intimacy, a way of speaking and listening that gets the words of Jesus into us so that they become us. It is not new information. It is not explanation. It is God’s word on our side, within us, working out the details in the circumstances of our lives.”
I think Casting Crowns have captured this language in their song ‘Love Them Like Jesus’. It’s a language I want to become fluent in…
“The love of her life is drifting away
They’re losing the fight for another day
The life that she’s known is falling apart
A fatherless home, a child’s broken heart
You’re holding her hand, you’re straining for words
You’re trying to make sense of it all
She’s desperate for hope, darkness clouding her view
She’s looking to you
Just love her like Jesus, carry her to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves her and stay by her side
Love her like Jesus
Love her like Jesus
The gifts lie in wait, in a room painted blue
Little blessing from Heaven would be there soon
Hope fades in the night, blue skies turn to grey
As the little one slips away
You’re holding their hand, you’re straining for words
You’re trying to make sense of it all
They’re desperate for hope, darkness clouding their view
They’re looking to you
Just love them like Jesus, carry them to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves them and stay by their side
Love them like Jesus
Lord of all creation holds our lives in His hands
The God of all the nations holds our lives in His hands
The Rock of our salvation holds our lives in His hands
He cares for them just as He cares for you
So love them like Jesus, love them like Jesus
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves them and stay by their side
Love them like Jesus
Love them like Jesus” (Casting Crowns)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAxzEuzNGg