Definitions
Edify - To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement.
Encourage - To inspire with hope, courage, or confidence; hearten.
Rebuke - To criticize or reprove sharply; reprimand. (The Greek is interesting here: Epiplesso: 1. to strike upon, beat upon 2. to chastise with words, to chide, upbraid, rebuke )
Admonish - 1. To reprove gently but earnestly. 2. To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution. 3. To remind of something forgotten or disregarded, as an obligation or a responsibility.
Patience - 1. Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness. 2. Marked by or exhibiting calm endurance of pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.
Why is it that we (in our minds) change most of these definitions into the word “be nice” (except rebuke, which we all cringe at and usually avoid).
I think that occurs for three reasons:
1) Those words are relatively obscure, so we don’t necessarily all know their definitions. Since most people do not regularly pick up a dictionary to find actual definitions, most of us attempt to figure out their definitions from the context in which they are used.
2) The context in which those words are used (Biblically and in Christian-ese) is that of being helpful. In a broad sense, this is relatively accurate, though it misses some details.
3) Most of us don’t like being wrong. Therefore, we don’t regularly associate being corrected with being helped. Correction is painful, and an unavoidable meaning of “rebuke”, so we cringe at that word. Meanwhile, we remove the aspect of helpful correction from edify and admonish (also exhort).
Why? I think we’re a culture of ends, which supercedes any concern over means. All of these words have the end of ‘being nice.’ The means simply vary, and we glaze over them. Only in rebuking, where there seems to be negative consequences in the short-term, and growth in the long-term (not always, we’re also a culture of broad generalizations) do we see the end as negative. That in itself is funny because there’s almost a contradiction of short-term vs long-term with ends vs means (this is unique to the western world. Asian cultures for example are very good at focusing at long-term ends, think the China-Taiwan conflict. To sum up our culture:
ends trump means (results are of more concern than the process, thus we fail to define these words)
short-term trumps long-term (that’s why we cring at and fear rebuking)
broad generalizations rule (that’s why we generally fail to approach this junk at a case-by-case level)
stealing ideas rocks (that’s basically why I just said what Tony did in his #2)
So…I just came from TJ’s new blog with the pictures of a seal and a hammer. I feel ashamed somehow.
Dustin - you should. Christians should always feel a creeping sense of shame.
Wait… no, not at all…
Going along with Tony’s post…
At least three of those five words are obsolete among all but us religious types.
Megan,
“Us religious types”? Verily, I sayeth unto thee … eth :)
Seriously, religious types? Seriously? Whuzzat? Interogative? Question mark?