Hammer on Anvil '

Did you know that words actually have two meanings? They are denotative and connotative. The denotative meaning is what we normally think of when we consider the meaning of a word. It is what you would find if you looked the word up in the dictionary – its literal meaning.

Then there is the connotative meaning. This is essentially the emotional meaning that we attach to words. The advertising industry pays very close attention to connotative meanings because it affects how we react to an advertisement. The term “Buy 2 and get both at 50% off” means the same thing as “Buy 1 get 1 free,” but the second term gets more buyers. Why? Because we react to the word free. It evokes an emotional response from us that make us feel as if we are getting a good deal. Also, consider the term “used car” as opposed to “pre-owned vehicle.” Which one sounds nicer to you? Used car sounds kind of dirty in the sense of a used tissue. Pre-owned, in contrast, has none of that negative connotation. Using the tissue comparison, it’s like somebody owned the tissue before us, but they didn’t use it, so it is therefore still nice.

A lot of the words in the Bible have strong connotative meanings. The words often play on extremes. For example, God is described as the most high (Psalm 47:2) and king of kings (Revelation 19:16) while Satan is described as the father of all lies (John 8:44) and the ruler of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4). You can’t get any higher than most high and you can’t get any lower than the father of all lies. These are extremes.

But extremes aren’t the only words with strong connotative meanings. Consider these words that are common in the Bible: grace, love, peace, righteousness, mercy, freedom, joy, forgiveness, salvation, etc. We look at these words and it can be easy to translate them into a connotative meaning. Good. These things are good. And consider these words that are common in the Bible: persecuted, sin, trials, judgment, suffering, deceitfulness, death, etc. Bad. These words are bad.

So what’s my point?

Good question. I got to thinking about denotation and connotation the other day when I was reading the Bible. You see, I started to zone off when I was reading. I was still reading the words, but they weren’t truly registering. When I zoned back in, it occurred to me that I had been reading only connotatively. That is, I had absolutely no idea what I had just read, but I still had a residual feeling about its connotative meaning.

But the thing is, if I want to truly understand Scripture, I have to get past the connotations. I have to dig deeper into the true meaning of what is being communicated. It can become so temptingly easy sometimes to just gloss over the Word and replace it with connotations. Instead of reading “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a), we translate in our heads to “the fruit of the spirit is good stuff, more good stuff, blah, blah, blah, and more good stuff.” When we do this, we rob the Bible of its meaning. We should be looking at each word and their individual meanings in an effort to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

I say this to hopefully make you aware of something that you may not have even known is happening. All of us who read the Bible probably do this from time to time to some extent. Being aware of it should make you better prepared to confront it the next time it happens.