“Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.” (II Timothy 2:14)
I’m not sure most of us preachers fully believe the scriptural command to avoid word-fights.
After all, aren’t some words worth wrangling over?
“Wrangling about words” conjures images of cowboys at the corral trying to tame a bucking theological term that won’t hold still.
It’s an interesting translation of the Greek logomacheo, with the logo meaning “word” and macheo referring to fighting. “Wrangling” is as good a translation as any. Maybe “wrestling,” or simply “fighting over words.” (Logomacheo is found only here in the New Testament, but the noun logomachia, found in I Timothy 6:4, is translated “disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth….” A little free information there. )
Be that as it may, many of us preachers do love to argue about words.
Wonder why that is.