Taxonomy of Words

In other words, What is the Source of Our Words

I’ve been working through a number of Bible Studies, tracing the source and meaning of the words we take for granted. This is daily research for words we use daily. Practically every day these words are in our vocabulary and we’ve accepted their meaning to be understood based on their global and historical usage. They often mean more and different than when they originally existed.

And we are generally okay with that.

But lately, and perhaps even longer ago than lately, words have been changing their meanings by various users and abusers of our language. Not only are these changes subtle, but they are trainwrecks as they move from positive to a distant negative. It is getting difficult to know what you can use, or say, without stepping on some little petunia’s foot.

My apologies to the flower world! I just did it. Petunia. I high-jacked the word from the Botanical world and brought it into the name calling arena! Am I wrong in doing this? Maybe.

It depends on what a Petunia is… maybe. It’s a deeper subject than what the Petunia is, but let’s stay with that thought for a moment. I had to go look it up. It simply sounded good at the moment. Ahhhaaa… Petunia! They are some of my favorite flowers. We use them in hanging baskets and the hummingbirds simply love them!

So. Was a Petunia hurt with my usage? Well, as an analogy a Petunia is a weakling blossom. It needs constant care and plenty of watering, even an overabundance of nurturing to keep it alive. It needs protection from the relentless elements. And it will eventually fade and die. According to one source, if you lived further south, it may rebound in the spring… a perennial. But for us, it is an annual. Toss into the recycle bin at the end of fall and buy new in the spring.

Was a Petunia hurt in my sentence? It has no feelings. As an analogy perhaps it makes sense to pick a beautiful flower that struggles to exist without a support system. Where does the word come from? Let me share.

Petunia first showed up in its current form in 1825. The New Latin word comes from an obsolete French word, “petun”, which is another word for tobacco. Compare the blossoms from the Petunia plant and the Tobacco plant, and you will see they are familiar looking, and they are from the same genus or source.

Whoa! A delicate flower is from the same family as the tobacco?
Is this a potential cash crop that I raise every year and failed to recognize the value?

Actually, it is in the same Genus (a class of things that have common characteristics and that can be divided into subordinate kinds) and Family (The family Solanaceae is in the major group Angiosperms (Flowering plants)).

See, science has so ordered their world of the existence of things that everything can be lumped together according to where it comes from. It’s called the Taxonomic rank and is the relative level of a group of organisms into a hierarchy. There is no crossover of words that I can tell!

Scientifically, all of life is categorized by levels. Remember your Science class? I had to rethink this viewpoint. There is a neat upside-down pyramid ranking of everything under the umbrella of Life. At the broadest end (the top of the upside down pyramid is the Domain, then Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.

So, a Petunia is in the Nicotiana (uh… nicotine!)Genus, and part of the Solanaceae Family, which also includes other plants like Tomatoes, Potatoes and Eggplants.

It’s enlightening, enjoyable to refresh and rethink, and slightly confusing! All at the same time!

The deeper you research, and the language source you dig through, you realize just how little we understand and use language correctly! Words came about from some source of the past that we do not remember, and normally do not care about. But I do…

Here’s my thought today. On a Spiritual front, we make the case that we are Christians with a Christian Worldview. But to lump all Christians together and say we are all alike and believe the same thing, would be like saying all Parents have the same view of raising their children.

If we are Christians, from where do we get a right to use that term? In the New Testament, this word is only used three times, and never by Jesus Christ! Nor is it mentioned in the Gospels! You find it twice in Acts. In Acts 11:26 they were first called Christians at Antioch, not Jerusalem. In Acts 26:28, King Agrippa told Paul he almost persuaded him to become a Christian. Then by Peter (1 Peter 4:16) where he writes to followers to not be guilty of being labeled anything but that which glorifies God. Hmmmm. A Christian!

Various commentaries suggest that the word came to light as a result of:

• Identifying the growing group of Christians as a political party.
• Or, it was used by those first Christians to help establish their identity with each other.
• Or, it was a term of derision to make fun of those who believed in a dead savior.

My view is that you believe you are a Christian simply because you are a follower of Christ and this finds many of us at different levels and places than other Christians in the taxonomical chart.

Before we accept that we are Christians, we must know what the word “Christ” means. The Greek word that we take from the New Testament original language is “Christos” and simply means “anointed“, but its source (taxonomical step) is another Greek word (chriō) next in line that means “contact“, as in the idea to rub or smear with oil. A deeper word that describes the “act of anointment.”

Essentially, a follower of Christ is one who is Smeared with the anointment that is Jesus Christ! Even Jesus used chriō when he began his ministry.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19 KJV)

Jesus was anointed for action! Preach! Heal! Recovery! Liberty! This is the time to hear of him and to accept him!

Could it simply be that if we are to be Christians, followers of Christ, then we are anointed for similar action? Preach the Good News (Gospel) to the poor. Heal the brokenhearted. Preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind… and to set at liberty them that are bruised with life. Preach the acceptable year of the Lord!

In other words, our claim to being a Christian can only be equal to the actions of the foundation of the one we are connecting with! Can a Christian be anything less than the one they claim to be following? Is there a taxonomy, a hierarchy, for this experience? Yes. It’s found in the Bible and the greatest example comes from the actions of Love, and then Do.

Examine this thought with me from these two points. Love and Do. Let the lesson come from Jesus, not me.

Love

But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(Matthew 22:34-40 KJV)

First, and secondly, we are to Love God, and Love our Neighbor. In a similar discourse in the Gospel of Luke, the questioner is a Lawyer and the answer deals with the 10 Commandment (The Law) response (Luke 10:25-28). But then the Lawyer thinks to justify himself of the question and answer, he asks a follow-on question. “Who is my Neighbor?” Jesus tells the story of the man left for dead on the Jericho Road and the only one who would help him was the Good Samaritan. The Lawyer describes the answer to his question. The neighbor is the one who showed Mercy! If you are THE NEIGHBOR, then you show MERCY!

Do

They are known as the “Great Commission” – in other words, the things that we are to “Do” to continue the Mission of Christ.

• Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV)
• And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)
• Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47 NKJV)

All three gospels agree in witness that the focus of the Great Commission was to reach all nations. For some, that is an action item of going where they are, while for others its recognizing that we are a mixture of all nations right where we live, so, the commission for the mission is for every follower of Christ regardless of where you are, or where you go.

Love. Do. The heartbeat of Christians! Every day. All the time. There is not a vacation from these two focuses! You do not get to stop loving or doing! Once you grab ahold of this then you can’t even dream of what it would be like to refuse to Love or Do.

Notice, however, he did not tell us ‘how‘ to love and ‘how‘ to do. There are examples throughout scriptures, but Love shines forth unique to who and where you are, and what the needs of others around you require. Doing is simply being ready to respond and looking for opportunities to be involved in the needs of others. All the time, however, you are showing yourself as a follower of Christ without brandishing your label. You are simply following his teachings and examples. That’s our Commission!

What do you see as your narrowed field of mission? It’s unique to your talents and callings. We do not elevate one effort over another. Every task is important to the overall commission of his mission. Every individual is important. Every witness you give is important to you as well as the receiver.

Jesus was focused on the individual as much as he was focused on the entire world. That should be our focus as well.