“Not only are there many ‘Preachers of A Different Gospel’ (Femi Adeleye, IFES-EPSA), but even from the pulpits of authentic and faithful preachers, “The gospel heard is different from the Gospel preached”, said Walter Freytag. How do our listeners understand key terms such as God, Spirit, Sin, Grace, Redemption etc. As we preach and teach, we must keep asking ourselves how the Christian key words and phrases are understood by our African listeners. At all levels of teaching and preaching we should bring into confrontation the authentic Biblical meaning and the possible local re-interpretation. This will help our listeners filter out pagan and animistic concepts which many Africans sitting in our pews still hold very firmly.” (Steven Musa-Kormayea, ‘The Challenges of Biblical Preaching in Today’s Africa’, paper presented at the NIFES EBTC August 2009)
It’s not only an African issue. As Mark Simpson put it (speaking in a UK context):
“What so often happens is that people take Bible words, and give them meanings they never have in the Bible.”
A few examples with their non-biblical meanings:
- God – distant impersonal supreme policeman
- Spirit – impersonal power/force
- Sin – discrete things that I do willfully against God’s law
- Grace – a spiritual boost
- Faith – having a such a powerful belief that something will happen that it actually does
- Getting born again – praying a salvation prayer and giving your life to Christ
- Testimony – talking about my personal experience
- Blood – liquid containing powerful life force
- What others could we add?
What we need to do is go back to the Bible and look for the Bible meanings. And there may be more than one for each word. How one Bible author uses a word may be different to another Bible author (e.g. Paul and John use ‘flesh’ in very different ways; Paul and James are talking about slightly different things when they say ‘faith’). And even just looking within one book or letter we may find that a word is used in more than one way (e.g. ‘law’ in Romans 8:2-3). It’s hard work but it’s essential if we’re wanting God’s words to transform our thinking rather than to pour our thinking into the Bible’s words.
Some helpful sites and free software to make word studies a lot easier:
- The Sword Project – basic, easy to use
- ISA Greek/Hebrew interlinear Bible software – a bit more complex
- Biblios – all sorts of useful online stuff at all sorts of levels
- Wiki Lexicon & Concordance of the Greek NT – very handy if you know a little bit of Greek
You might even find you enjoy word studies!
fidelnyikuri
iServe Africa Webmaster
Utumishi Blog 
Another example from your previous post:
– Calling – God’s specific vocation for me.