Grammar is a funny thing. I remember when it was almost mandatory that no ifs-ands-ors-or-buts may be used to begin a sentence. If you dared to challenge the rule you got – sorry, got was nearly as bad as ifs-ands-ors-or-buts – you were marked down, right down. That leads me to got. Got was almost a sin, it must never be used and one must never, ever even think in terms of got. It was a wicked word, used only by the vulgar and illiterate.
Worse still has become the transition of the word, enormity. It used to mean outrageous, extreme wickedness or inordinate iniquity. It was an outrageous crime and a criminal offence. It denoted sin of unimaginable proportions.
But you can rest easy. Jesus often began sentences with ands or buts as you can plainly see if you have one of those Bibles that print his actual words in red. I have a rule that if it is okay for Jesus, it is okay for me and I have tossed my ifs-ands-ors-or-buts guilt out the window.
Oh, and there are some seven uses of got in the KJV Bible in addition to it variation, gotten, so you can go get your got and use it whenever you want.
But I am a bit stuck on enormity. It used to mean sin but somebody changed the rules. It is now used to replace dimension as though enormous were too naughty a word to employ.
But James got it right. He told us the original sin-rule to determine its meaning. He said it begins with desire, ‘then desire conceives and gives birth to sin,’ James 1:15. Repeat that, get it into your mind, swallow it whole. Desire gives birth to sin. Always, always check your desires, check them for valid purpose and lawful use.
But check them against lawful enterprise and inspiration because Jesus had desires that were lawful, right and inspirational. He said ‘With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer,’ Luke 22:15.
So what about desire? Well, if it has a maggot in it, it gives birth to sin. And sin? When sin is full-grown it breeds death, said James. So death is the result of grown-up desire which is exactly what God told Adam in the Garden, Genesis 2:17, ‘for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ And when Eve saw a ‘tree to be desired’ she ate and began to die because desire, when it is grown up, brings death.
But then the rule got swiped. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16.
The enormous news is that Jesus has made a right royal rule change.
By Just a Minute team writer Elizabeth Price.
You can contact Elizabeth direct at mailto:reprice@dragnet.com.au