Language and What I Think too Many Christians Get Wrong.

Laguage is kind of a funny thing. Many languages have different words for different definitions. Example: German. And French, and Spanish... I'm sure there are others. The English word "you" has multiple versions in German: different forms of the word are for singular, plural, formal, and familiar. The biggest distinction being formal and familiar.

The familiar "du" (pronounced like the English "do") is for children, pets and other animals, and close friends. The formal you: Sie (pronounced like [zee] ) is for essentially everyone else, unless/until they give you permission to use "du."

Here's the interesting thing. English actually has the same distinction.. well, used to. The familiar "thee" and it's variations (thou, thine) simply aren't used anymore. They've been replaced with "you," which was originally the formal.

"Sie" is also for plural application: a sermon or lecture where you're addressing a whole crowd.

Sounds kind of complicated, I know. But that's ok- basically, at least in German, the recommendation is to use "Sie" unless/until the person says they want you to use "du."

Being Christian is complicated, too. You'd think it's pretty straightforward- Jesus taught some rather revolutionary stuff and asked His followers to do the things, to be like Him.

Simple, right? Well, let's go back a little. I'm going to use one of the first English translations of the Bible- the one commissioned by King James of England in the early 1600s, KJV. Sure, the language is a little archaic, but for this post, that's kind of the point.

In Matthew 4:18-19 Jesus calls the brothers, Peter and Andrew, as His apostles, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Notice, Jesus uses "you".. because he's talking to two people, plural usage.

I know- Jesus spoke Aramaic. And because I looked it up, there are actually a bunch of forms of "you" in Aramaic!! Aramaic adds to add to the familiar/formal, singular/plural, another distinction: masculine/feminine!

Anyway, back to Matthew. Let's look at another example. Matthew 5:29. This is part way through the Sermon on the Mount, addressed to His apostles. Up to this point, He's been using "ye".. another variation of "you," still plural. But at verse 29, He switches and starts using the singular, "thy" and "thee": And if thy right eye offend thee..."

Things just got personal!!!

Here's the thing: "thee" and it's variations are ALL OVER in the KJV Bible!! Let's go back even further, to Moses' time and the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:3-17. There are a lot of "thou," specifically "Thou shalt.." and "Thou shalt not..."

Remember, "thou" is singular, not plural.

Which means... When Jehovah reached out of the cloud and wrote this, He was making this personal, singular. He meant these to be commands to the individual, not the collective. "I want each of you individually to use these statements to govern and manage your own personal lives."

Btw, He wrote, "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not..." He did NOT write, "Thou shalt make sure thy neighbor doth..."

I propose: God wants His commands to be used as a mirror for accurate personal self-analysis and self government. These commandments were not meant to be a metric to measure our Christian neighbor or any other neighbor for that matter. And I mean neighbor in the sense that Jesus used when He directed us to love our neighbor, our fellow man.

And this probably makes me just as bad as them, passing judgment on others. *sigh.