Luke 6:47-49 Misquoted II: Christian-isms
Dug Down Deep
Our scripture passage for today…at least, the scripture passage where we are going to begin…is Luke 6:47-49. Luke 6:47-49.
47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
This little story of Jesus is perhaps one of His more well-known parables, at least for those who grew up in Sunday School singing about “the rains came down and the floods came up.”
It’s a simple story: two men set out to build houses. The first man chooses to build in a location that takes some work. The ground is hard, and filled with rocks. Digging is difficult, and he has to work to get a hole deep enough to plant the corner pillars of his new home.
The second man chooses a much easier location to build upon. The ground he picks is pure sand. He digs the holes for his corner pillars in no time, and his house is up far faster and at much less expense than his neighbor’s.
But then, the rainy season begins. The first man, because he has anchored his home to a foundation of rock, finds his home standing steady and firm despite the winds and the floods. But when the bad weather hits the second home, its unstable foundation proves no match for the torrent that sweeps it away.
The builder who builds on the rock, Jesus says, is like a person who builds their life on the words of Jesus. “Hears my words and puts them into practice” he says in verse 47. The story is about the ideas–the truths–that we build our lives upon. The Big Ideas that guide us through life. When we hear Jesus’ words and make them the foundation of our lives, then we have a sure footing from which to face life’s storms.
But when we neglect Jesus’s words–when we hear his words but do not put them into practice–then we are building on a shaky foundation. If we build our lives on the wrong ideas we may find that they will not stand up to the trials and storms of life.
And for me, the words that stand out in this section of scripture are the words “dug down deep.” With those three little words, Jesus is telling us that building on the rock takes work. Shifting through the various ideas and philosophies of life takes effort. We have to excavate the teachings about and interpretations of Jesus’ words to get down to the bedrock of truth. Sometimes there are going to be some commonly held assumptions–conventional wisdom and catchy slogans–that upon further examination will reveal themselves to be shifting sand rather than foundational truth. People who want to build on the rock need to work hard, dig down deep, to make sure they are anchored to the Words of Jesus.
This is all of particular interest to me as several years ago I wrote a book called “Misquoted.” The subtitle is “Things we think are in the Bible, but are not.” The book has 8 chapters, and each chapter looks at a common saying within Christianity and then examines whether it is a Biblical idea or not. Phrases I cover in the book include “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves,” “Let Go and Let God,” “Everything Happens for a Reason” and more.
I call them “Christian-isms”. Sometimes they are referred to as “Christianese.” There are dozens of them. Pithy, memorable sayings that Christian people repeat over and over again that look good on fridge magnets and tasteful t-shirts. We use them so often within Christian circles that we just assume they must be quotes from the Bible.
But there is a problem: some of these phrases are not that helpful and--worse than that--many are not even true.
Back in January of 2024 I did a series of sermons on some of these cliches. But the thing is, after writing a book about this stuff, it seems like more and more of these phrases come my way. It’s sort of like buying a car. In August, I traded in my old Dodge Dakota for a Nissan Frontier. I had never thought much about the Nissan Frontier, but now that I drive one, I notice them everywhere. It’s amazing how many of my fellow “Frontier-Heads” there are out there. (Is that a thing? I don’t think that’s a thing.) In the same way, since writing a book on Christian Cliches it seems like I notice them more and more.
So I want to do another series on more of these Christian-isms. I’ll talk about a couple of the phrases in the book that I didn’t do in 2024, but also I want to look at a couple different ones as well. In the next few weeks I plan to talk about the cliches: “God Just Wants Me to be Happy,” “God Needed Another Angel in Heaven,” “Christians Shouldn’t Judge” and more.
But what I want to do today is talk about why this matters. I want to talk about the nature of cliches and the dangers that come our way when we build our lives on them. I’ll put it like this: Christian Cliches are shifting sand. We must dig down deep to the bedrock of Christian Truth.
Clever, Familiar, Simple and Authoritative
First, let’s talk about why cliches are so popular. Why do these sayings endure? I’ve got four reasons:
- Cliches are clever
A cliché is defined as a phrase or opinion that feels overused and lacking in original thought. We call something a cliché when we’ve heard it a million times. We talk about tired cliches and we dismiss people’s arguments when they resort to old cliches.
And yet, they endure. And I think that’s because we are drawn to phrases that can sum up big thoughts in a few words. Something becomes a cliche because there is something about it–a turn of phrase, a word picture, a profound thought–that captures people's imaginations. It’s clever.
It is tempting to think this is a recent phenomenon. I’ve heard the times we live in referred to as a “sound bite” culture. We live in the day of the meme. We are bombarded constantly by advertising campaigns that are built around 4 or 5 word slogans.
I’ve only recently started looking at Twitter. I know I’m late to the game. Twitter is being replaced by Instagram and TikTok (and it’s called X now, but I still call it Twitter). And I get the appeal. You can scroll through all these Tweets and people are expressing themselves in just a few words. Or a picture with a catchy slogan. And the more clever it is, the more it gets liked, and the more it gets seen.
But I’m not sure we’re the first generation to like catchy slogans. Our platforms are different, but I think humans have been drawn to mottos and catchphrases since language was invented. We have an entire book of the Bible that is made up almost exclusively of one liners (I’m talking about the book of Proverbs.) Julius Caesar (or his marketing team) was famous for mottos like “Vini, Vidi, Vicci” (I came, I saw, and I conquered) and “The die is cast.” Some of the cliches I talk about in the book (like “God helps those who help themselves” and “Time heals all wounds”) can be traced to very ancient sources.
I think there is something about human nature that draws us to catchy, quotable phrases. They endure because they are clever.
- Cliches are familiar.
Once a phrase is widely disseminated and repeatedly quoted it becomes almost impossible to question or criticize. “Everyone” knows this is true, because “everyone” has heard it at least a thousand times.
This is almost a circular argument: that phrase is trusted because it has been repeated so often, and it gets repeated so often because it is such a trusted phrase. It’s a closed loop that tends to make it difficult to think carefully about what the phrase is really saying.
I’ve read a little about the concept of “cognitive fluency.” Psychologists who study decision making have found that our brains are drawn to shortcuts when we have to make decisions. That is to say, our brains can be lazy. If we can make a decision without going through a long mental process, we will. The measure of how easy or difficult a certain mental task appears to be is “cognitive fluency.”
And one of the biggest factors on cognitive fluency is familiarity. Our brains tend to trust things they are familiar with. The more we get exposed to certain ideas or concepts the more we tend to prefer those things. Most of the time, this shortcut works well. We don’t need to expend time and mental effort scrutinizing something again if we already made the mental effort the first time we encountered it.
Advertisers get this. That’s why you see some brands at every commercial break, and they don’t mind showing you the exact same commercial over and over. The more familiar you become with a brand or a slogan, the more your brain begins to trust that it is good. That seems to be the strategy for political campaigning as well. I’ve gotten the same campaign fliers over and over again in my mailbox. I see the same political ads again and again. The idea is that the more familiar we are with a politician’s face or message, the more likely we are to trust it.
Same goes for cliches. The more we hear them, the more we accept them as true. They become unquestionable (beyond criticism) because we have heard them so often.
- Cliches simplify things
Another form of cognitive fluency is how complex or simple things appear to be. In one experiment, researchers wrote out instructions for doing an exercise routine in two different fonts. One was flowery and elaborate, while the other was a simple typeset.
When they asked participants to estimate how long it would take to actually perform the exercise routine, people anticipated that it would take almost twice as long to do the exercise when reading instructions in the font that was difficult to read (15 minutes versus 8). Participants were also more willing to incorporate the easier to read routine into their daily life than the harder to read one.
Do you see what is happening? The routines are exactly the same! Step by step instructions for pretty basic exercises. But because one was perceived as more difficult to read, it was also assumed that one would be more difficult to carry out.
The point is: our brains like things that appear simple to understand, and one of the hallmarks of cliches is that they take very complex ideas and reduce them to simple and memorable phrases. When you can sum up big thoughts in just a few words, your brain is likely to latch onto that.
It is much simpler to say “everything happens for a reason” than to wrestle through the complex problem of why and how pain and suffering can exist in a world governed by a good and powerful God. It is much easier to cling to a slogan like “Let go and let God” than to process how faith in God’s provision aligns with the necessity of human responsibility and initiative.
- Cliches are authoritative
The fourth thing that we should note about Christian cliches is that they have a tendency to end discussion, not provoke more. These cliches carry a lot of weight. Because they are so clever, and so familiar, and because they take such complex ideas and make them seem so simple, once one of these cliches is brought into the conversation, there is an expectation that little more can be said.
For example, suppose you are on a church board discussing whether the missions budget should be increased or not. The discussion is lively, until someone who is opposed to further missions spending says: “Charity begins at home.” It’s an authoritative statement. It doesn’t invite much more discussion. It is intended to end debate. Maybe he’s right, maybe we should take care of our own needs before we worry about the needs of someone halfway around the world.
In the last few years I have taken an interest in cults and cult-like behavior. There are a couple of podcasts I listen to that cover the history of different cults and if there is a documentary about a cult on Netflix, I’m likely to watch it. And one of the things that often come up in discussions about cults is the prevalence of “Thought Terminating Cliches”. The idea is that in high-control groups there will be a collection of often repeated slogans and phrases that shut down any further discussion. Phrases like “Touch not the Lord’s Anointed” or “Trust the leader” are statements which force people to get back in line and choke off critical thinking.
I’m not saying that we are being cult-like when we use cliches, but we do need to be careful about falling back on simple solutions to complex problems.
What Could Go Wrong?
So, let’s move on to another question:. What’s so bad about using a few cliches? Couldn’t I have written my book about something more important?
Please understand, my goal is not to make anyone feel bad if you have used these phrases. My goal is not even, necessarily, to get you to stop saying them. I’ve got more than a few unquestioned cliches in my vocabulary, even after writing this book. And I do not expect you to 100% agree with me about all of the cliches I talk about.
But I do think there are good reasons to think a little bit more carefully about some of the cliches we hear in Christian circles most often. I’ll give you three:
- Insensitive Answers
We have a tendency to use these sorts of cliches as easy answers to tough situations. And for the person who is in the midst of that tough situation, reliance on cliches can seem insensitive.
I think of a lot of these phrases as verbal filler. We use them to fill the cracks in our conversations.
Imagine you are talking to a friend. That friend is sharing something heavy that has recently happened: a parent diagnosed with an illness, a child who has been in trouble at school, a job situation that has turned ugly.
It’s an emotional situation. There’s a long pause, a crack in the conversation.
You start to feel uncomfortable with the silence. You want to offer comfort and encouragement. Above all, you want to bolster this person’s faith in God. So you reach for the trowel and you fill the crack with some verbal spackling:
- “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
- “Everything happens for a reason.”
- “You’ve gotta just let go and let God.”
These are statements we make without really thinking them through. They are so familiar to us that we accept them as unquestioned truth. They take complex situations and simplify them in a memorable phrase. We hear them so often that they carry the air of authority.
But this kind of verbal filler rarely withstands careful consideration. Your friend might feel you are being truly caring in the moment--and you are trying!--but if they take time to reflect on what you have said, they are going to find there isn’t much comfort to be had there.
Proverbs 25:20 says:
20 Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day,
or like vinegar poured on a wound,
is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
If it’s cold outside, and you come by and take away my coat, that’s not gonna help me. Likewise, if I have an open sore, and you come by and throw vinegar on there, that’s gonna hurt me worse.
In the same way, if I am stricken by grief and you come to me with empty platitudes and cheap clichés, that’s just not helpful. It’s like asking me to go to an upbeat concert when what I really want to do is sit at home and eat ice cream.
When we reduce the great mysteries of evil and suffering to a slogan that will fit on a bumper sticker, it’s inadequate. It’s patching up a hole in the wall with bubble gum and masking tape. It ignores the depth of the pain by going for a pat answer. When we resort to clichés, we are just as likely to convey an attitude of un-concern as we are to convey truly helpful care. That’s singing songs to a heavy heart.
What your friend in that tough situation needs is not a carefully crafted catchphrase, but a shoulder to lean on and a listening ear.
- Unbiblical Answers
The subtitle of the book is “Things We Think Are in the Bible, But Are Not.” Most of the sayings I chose to examine get quoted so frequently by believers, and with such certainty, that it seems like we are citing a Bible text. If I can help us realize that not everything we repeat like a Bible verse is an actual Bible verse, that will be a win.
My beef with these sayings, however, is not just that the exact wording is not found in the pages of Scripture. There are plenty of true statements that do not come directly from the Bible. Every week I prepare a sermon which I try to summarize in one or two key phrases. Those phrases are usually not direct quotes from the Bible, but I hope they capture Biblical ideas. A phrase does not need to be a quote from the Bible in order to be true.
When I say that the clichés in this book are not Biblical, what I mean is that the ideas they convey are not in keeping with Biblical teaching. My beef with these clichés is that they give misleading or incomplete pictures of God and our relationship with Him.
In the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah the prophet is given the challenging task of warning God’s people of soon to arrive judgment. It’s a challenging task because, by many measures, they were doing great as a nation. Business was good, they enjoyed a great many entertainments, the people did as they pleased. So when Jeremiah came along and called them back to their covenant commitments to the Lord, he was quickly written off as a killjoy.
In addition, there were plenty of other self-styled prophets who were more than happy to give messages which contradicted Jeremiah’s. Jeremiah said “Thus sayeth the Lord”? Well, they would reply, “This is what the Lord told me.” Jeremiah warned of upcoming conflict and famine? They responded by saying “No disaster shall come upon you.”
One false prophet in particular got under Jeremiah’s skin, a man named Hananiah. God instructed Jeremiah to go to the court of the king wearing a yoke across his neck as a symbol of the upcoming subjugation Judah would experience under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But when Jeremiah made his speech to the king, Hananiah came forward and broke the yoke, declaring that God would break the Babylonian exile within 2 years. He was only off by 68 years.
This is what Jeremiah said to Hananiah:
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. 16 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”
I’m not saying that when we use bad cliches it’s like we are being false prophets. But it is a serious thing to claim to have messages from the Lord that are not from the Lord. When we fall back on easy answers that have the ring of authority instead of wrestling with difficult Biblical challenges, we run the risk of moving people away from the Lord rather than towards Him.
- Disappointing answers
Let’s go back to the parable we started with:
47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Jesus specifically says that this is a story about hearing His words and putting them into practice.
The foolish builders choose a poor foundation. They skip the hard work of digging down to bedrock and erect their house directly on the sand. We might say these are people who settle for familiar clichés and easy answers. They are people whose faith is built on slogans and catchphrases. But Jesus warns that when the storms and floods that are the trials of life come to these people, their faith will collapse like a sandcastle.
But the wise builders choose a better foundation. They do the hard work of digging down deep so that their house can be anchored to rock. We might say these are people who ask questions and examine the scriptures. These are people whose faith is built on learning and practicing the truths of the Bible, whether they are easy or hard. And Jesus says that when the storms of life come to these people, their faith will remain firm.
If we are building our lives on ideas or thoughts that we think are biblical when they are not, we run the risk of disappointment, disillusionment and despair when things don’t work out the way we expect. When these cliches are revealed to be built on half truths or mischaracterizations of God, it shakes our foundations.
Larry Osborne wrote a book called “10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.” He tells this story:
A small Turkish village was decimated in the massive 1999 Turkish earthquake. Apparently, thirty years earlier, the government had warned the village leaders that their town was on top of a major fault line. The government told them that the whole village would have to be moved, and offered to help with the expense. But the leaders didn’t want to move, so instead they bribed some of the geological officials to redraw the map—this time moving the fault line so that the maps no longer showed the village to be in danger.
For a while, it worked out great. The villagers got to keep their homes. They stayed connected to their heritage. Property values stayed up. No problems—until, that is, the earthquake hit. (Osborne, p. 175)
That’s the danger of building our lives on things we want to be true, instead of the Truth of God’s Word. You might sincerely believe some of the cliches I talk about in the next few weeks, they might bring you comfort for a while, but sooner or later the truth will come out.
Critical Listening
Now, third, what can we do? How can we guard ourselves against trendy religion that makes cheap cliches out of timeless truths? How do we make sure we are building on the solid rock of God’s Word and not the shifting sands of conventional wisdom?
The answer is in critical thinking. Don’t settle for easy answers, but ask questions. Question everything.
In Acts 17, Paul’s missionary journeys led him to the Greek city of Berea. It’s a small part of Paul’s story, covering just a few verses. And nothing terribly noteworthy appears to have happened in Berea. But in recounting his brief stay, the narrator of Acts (Luke) makes this praiseworthy observation of the Bereans:
11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)
The Bereans were eager listeners, but they were also critical listeners. They didn’t just accept the things Paul said because he was Paul. They weren’t roped in by the power of his presentation or the cleverness of his phrasing. Instead, they went back to the Scriptures to see if Paul’s teaching was in accordance with what God had already revealed about Himself.
Ultimately, that’s what I hope all of us will do. And not just with the 5 misquotes I will cover in the next few weeks, but with all the information we receive. All the glib answers that are given to us as though we must accept them with unquestioned obedience. All the truisms that we are supposed to believe because they’ve been repeated so often.
If you hear a pithy statement uttered as declarative truth, or a slogan proclaimed as though it should be the end of all further discussion, don’t be afraid to think it through. Here are the three questions I use for each of the statements in the book:
Is there any Biblical truth?
Is the statement an actual Bible verse? If it is, has it been quoted accurately? Does the use of the statement line up with the Biblical context?
If it is not a Bible verse, does the main assertion of the idea line up with other Biblical truths you are familiar with? Can you discern the Biblical truth that the statement is attempting to convey?
Where does the statement go wrong?
Is this phrase more of an expression of secular thinking or Biblical thinking? What popular and worldly wisdom might the statement be derived from?
In what ways is the phrase dismissive or callous of the circumstances others are experiencing? How has the effort to be pithy made the idea of this phrase seem trite?
What other Biblical truths or realities does the idea ignore?
Is there better news in the gospel?
How can the great truths of salvation by grace, God’s sovereignty, and our compassionate care for one another be brought to bear in this situation?
What Bible verses and stories can bring hope even if there are no easy answers?
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The successful builder in Jesus’ story dug down deep. He didn’t settle for the easy route, but sought out a foundation that would support His home through all of life’s storms. I hope that we can do the same. Think critically, ask hard questions, and always strive to anchor the ideas that shape our life on the truth of God’s Word.
