God and 7th Grade Grammar...

Recently, my son and I engaged in a discussion of the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) phenomenon of the 1990’s. He brought to light for me something that I had not thought of regarding all those little bracelets. My son helped me to realize the heresy that the bracelets conveyed. It all boiled down to grammar, 7th grade grammar to be precise.  You see, God the Creator, God the Reconciler, God the Sustainer is always the subject of active verbs!  WOW!  I never thought my 7th grade English class was actually a beginning course in Christian theology!   Imagine that!   Well here is how it works:

The subject of an active sentence performs the action of the verb: "I throw the ball." ….. “God CREATED heaven and earth…….”

So in the case of “What Would Jesus Do”, WOULD  is a modal verb… not the main verb – but an auxiliary verb! In this case, WOULD is actually the past tense of the verb WILL.  The "WHAT WOULD" is a question, with a passive verb - - which implies a guess on our part.  Now that may be the heresey. According to scripture, God’s promises are ALL active verbs – God CREATED, God IS CREATING, God WILL CREATE all of which are active tense which expresses an action or situation that did, is and will occur - - - God is the subject of ACTIVE VERBS!!

In the case of WWJD, it is not what would Jesus do, it is actually about what WE ARE DOING, and what WE WILL DO because of WHAT Jesus DID, IS DOING, and PROMISES for us!  Some refer to this as "Because - Therefore" Theology.  Because Jesus lived, died and arose for us; therefore, we are free to LIVE as the people of God. 

Why this so early on a Wednesday morning… I wanted to illustrate how easily we/I can wander down a wrong road. This is so simple, yet so very important just remember as my son reminded me, “Our God IS ALWAYS THE SUBJECT OF ACTIVE VERBS!