Romans 6:19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations….
All of life is an accommodation of communication. Even though we have Twitter and Snapchat, we still have difficulty expressing what we think, feel and believe. Even the best communicators are limited by the capacity of the hearers. And yet we continue to try to bridge the gap between what we think in our minds and what the other person understands about what we think in our minds.
Ask any couple who have been together longer than the first fight/argument/disagreement. I hear it every day in my Couples Therapy. What one party thought they were communicating very clearly just wasn’t received in any form even close to what the sender intended. I see it happen right in my office. I often have to act as an interpreter, and all my clients speak English!
You might have noticed it with your children, if you have any. You think you are being very plain about your expectations, but they somehow just don’t get it. They end up doing something so different you don’t even recognize the connection between what you asked and what they did.
Paul the Apostle had fear that his communication might not be received. It seems as though he worried that it might go right over the heads of those who were going to read and hear his writing. So what does he do? He puts his message in terms he thinks they will understand.
That is what we see happening in the verse today. Paul begins by telling the recipients of this letter, the church in Rome, that he is going to dumb it down to be sure they get it. He calls this difficulty our human limitations. And we all have this limitation.
In fact all of God’s communication takes into account the fact that we are humans. We are endowed by our Creator with the ability to comprehend language, to create great works of theater and love poetry. And yet, Paul still has to take into account our human limitations as he writes.
If the LORD were to speak God-speak, none of us would comprehend it. Eternity can’t be confined to language, even a heavenly language. Even if we could understand His language, the topics of discussion would be to large for our mental capacities.
So what this means is that the LORD always accommodates His communication to us. He gives us everything we need, but not everything He knows. And everything He knows is everything there is to know.
So as we communicate today, remember that all communication is a compromise. And until our belly buttons get replaced with a USB port, we will always struggle to communicate effectively!
The Arnold Journey 