Trump Card

Been reading in the first epistle to the Corinthians and noticed something in the way Paul instructed his readers. "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..." 1 Cor. 1:10 If you ever wanted your Christian reader to take notice, a good way to get their attention would be to specifically in that moment throw the weight of the Lord Jesus behind what you are about to say. Paul was an Apostle. He can do that. In fact the Holy Spirit was superintending his writing of this letter whether he had made the divine choice to add that little bit or not.

I noticed this because, for Paul, it was good. Not so much for us. In my conversing with Christians I have found at least 2 really common trump cards of this sort that communicate that whatever is being said is untouchable, unquestionable. Some folks just talk that way because they hear it from others so it is learned and they don't intend to claim inerrancy for their words.

Nevertheless, I think this way is at least sloppy Christian jargon or worse it is one individual dominating ideas so not to be questioned.

"God said" is one of them. "God told me," "The Holy Spirit led me," etc. You get the idea. On one level its harmless but could better be said, "it just really seemed that the Lord was directing me" or something of the sort. The reason is because you have not claimed authoritative revelation talking this way and you have left room for fellowship.

Fellowship is squashed before it can begin when someone has "heard from God." Your brother/sister cannot as easily counsel or direct or more genuinely encourage. And you cannot receive counsel or encouraged. You have your minds set or it will seem so to your friend.

"Conviction" is the other one. "I am just really convicted that we need to do this or not do that." Great when it's Biblical. Unfortunately, most of these strong convictions I hear about are a stretch to prove Biblical. But the reason both the one sharing and the hearer cannot as easily experience fellowship is because you know from Scripture you ought not act against conscience. So any response in opposition seems like a threat to this issue of conscience. And the door to counsel and more genuine encouragement from the hearer and openness of the one sharing is effectively closed. I would offer something like, "I am really feeling the weight and seriousness of this issue. Talk with me about whether I am thinking Biblically." It's humble fellowship this way it think.

Just another note on convictions. Any change in your life or new determination based merely on conviction does not have the same spiritual or lasting affect as real delight. Conviction to do a thing cannot replace delight to. Just a thought which can be seen and proven in all the failures of religious men since Eden.