spockrates, how do you know when words mean something different? How do you decide what do they mean?
Knowing the *possible *different meanings of a word is as easy as consulting a dictionary. Knowing the *actual *meaning of a word spoken by Christ, or anyone, is not so easy. My mentor Socrates had this to say about the written word:
I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing has one grave fault in common with painting. For the creations of the painter stand there true as life, and yet if you ask them a question they maintain a solemn silence. And the same may be said of written words. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if, out of a desire to learn, you ask for an explanation of something that has been said, they produce the same unvarying meaning, over and over again. And once they have been written down, they promiscuously knock about the world anywhere at all, among those who understand them, and equally among those for whom they are completely unsuitable. They do not know to whom they should or should not speak; and if they are mistreated or unjustly slandered, they always require the author of their being to rescue them. For the book cannot protect or defend itself.
(Phaedrus 275)
You see, if some of the written words of Christ are ambiguous, then they can be taken to mean two different things (as you and I have seen in the previous examples). It’s all to easy for someone like you or me to get the wrong idea about what He meant. And that’s understandable, for it’s not as though Jesus is available for us to ask Him what He meant (although, we might receive some guidance by praying for answers). Concerning ambiguity of the words of Jesus, consider the word *with *in this quote:
“… with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew 19:26)
Now if you and I think *with *means
in the same location as then we might be mistaken. Take Judas, for example. He was with Christ *locationally *at the Last Supper, but he was in no way with Christ
relationally. Rather than being with Him, he was against Him and made up his mind to betray Him. So it is reasonable to say that all good things were not possible for Judas, nor for any enemy of our Lord and Savior, because only “with God all things are possible.” With, in this case, as nothing to do with proximity of space, but everything to do with proximity of heart and mind. The person who is with God is not the one who was in the same room and about to betray Him, but the one like you yourself, who is not at the Last Supper, but is still with Christ in that (like David of the Old Testament) you have a heart like the Son of God’s.
To answer your question, then, which is, “How do you decide what do they mean?” The answer is that I first consider all of the possible meanings, and then I pray for wisdom, for Saint James tells you and me:
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
(James 1:5)
And then I use the reason God gave me, and the help of others like yourself, to rule out as many of the possible meanings as I can. For God tells you and me:
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.”
(Isaiah 1:16)
What ever is left at the end, are the only possibilities. And if only one possibility is left, *that *is most likely the truth.
So I ask again, my new friend, are you with me so far?
