The Difficulty of Communication

The Difficulty of Communication

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in n this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. (1 Cor 3:18)

If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; (1 Cor 8:2)


Language is a very effective means of communication. It is however, not without its difficulties. A conversation involves at least two parties; a speaker (or writer) and a hearer (or reader). Difficulties may arise if the two parties are not synchronized with regard to the language. For example, I still remember a joke my sixth grade teacher told.

A Mexican immigrant in Texas was selling a young horse. His neighbor, a native Texan came by to look at it. As he was examining the horse the Mexican told him, “my friend, the horse, he don’t look so good.”


The Texan was a little taken aback by the comment and told the Mexican in no uncertain terms that he knows horses and he will be the judge of whether or not the horse looked good.


The Mexican simply replied, “but I must tell you, the horse, he don’t look so good.” The Texan was now a little offended and told the Mexican the horse looked very fine to him and that he would buy it.


They made the transaction and the Texan loaded the horse into his trailer and took him home.

Not many days later the Texan came back to the Mexican quite angry. He said, “Say, what are you trying to pull? That horse you sold me is blind.” The Mexican only replied, “But my friend, I tell you, the horse, he don’t look so good.”

Of course this little joke shows what can happen when two parties have a different understanding of a the meaning of one word. However there are other factors that impact our ability to communicate.

The Contract of Communication

Communication is a joint effort. It is contract between two parties that requires good faith by both parties. Communication requires work from both parties. A good communicator will consider his audience and try to make sure to use a common understanding and define his words so they won’t be misconstrued. But this does not solve all the problems of communication. Much of the problem lies with the hearer. That is why Jesus kept saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matt 11:15)

We can assume that God did His part when he communicated through the Bible. What remains of communication lies with us. We can have the help of the Holy Spirit if we would like, but again, the "if" lies with us. There is work to be done even before the Holy Spirit is allowed to do His work.

When a speaker speaks, or an author writes, he is intending to suggest something. That suggestion is called an implication. It may, or may not be explicitly stated. The implication belongs to the communicator.


When we read or hear something in our language, we always infer (deduce or conclude) meaning. The inference is our own. It may or may not be what was implied (strongly suggest) by the speaker (or writer).

Inference from Culture

A significant factor in implications and inferences is our culture. (the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group).

An example of that is Jesus’ words found in Matthew 11:29-30. 

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

Now we have some understanding of what a yoke is and we can image how it is used to pull “burden.” However, we miss half of the play on words by not realizing that in the Jewish culture to which Jesus was speaking, it was common to refer to a rabbi’s system of teachings as a yoke. If you sat under a certain rabbi, you were said to take on his yoke. (See Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis or this post for more on this idea of yoke.)

Although Jesus was using a figure of speech, we miss the fact that he was implying that he had his own system that was different from what the other teachers were espousing. The other teachers of Jesus’ day were all under someone else’s yoke, not having one of their own.

This was not missed by the crowds in Jesus’ day however. Matthew tells us, “the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matt 7:28-29)

Inference from Preconceived Notions

Another factor affecting implications and inferences is preconceived notions. A preconceived notion is an assumption about something that is formed prior to getting all the information. An example of that can be found in Luke 24. This is where we have the account of the disciples who were going to Emmaus. They encountered Jesus after He had risen, but they didn’t recognize him. He asked them what they were talking about and they asked Him if He didn’t know about the things that had happened. He said “What things” and they said to Him,

“The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19-21)

They had a preconceived notion about what this redemption meant and how it would come about. This made them, and others like Thomas I might add, miss the very specific words Jesus gave told them about his death and resurrection.

Inference from Misconceptions

Misconceptions are similar, but sometimes even more difficult to avoid because neither party may be aware of them. A misconception is a view or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty thinking. This was the primary difficulty Jesus faced in His day, and still faces today. A great example can be found in his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. You may recall Jesus said to him, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus replied “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (See John 3:3-4)

Here, it is clear that Nicodemus had no idea what Jesus was talking about. Jesus understood that very well and said so. “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” (John 3:10) He also said in essence that Nicodemus’ faulty thinking would make it very difficult for him to understand and believe spiritual concepts. “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12)

Inference from Our Will

Culture, preconceived notions and misconceptions are the very reason people can look at creation and conclude it happened by chance.

But there is one more factor we must recognize. That is our will. Kierkegaard once said, 

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Søren Kierkegaard 

More importantly, Jesus said 

“If anyone is willing to do His [the Father’s] will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.” (John 7:17)

“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” (See John 8:43-47)

My point here is that we have culture, preconceived notions and numerous misconceptions standing in the way of our understanding. Today we are bombarded with misconceptions due to faulty thinking and wrong motivations. Sometimes our motivation is to justify our own desires, sometimes it is simply to support our preconceived notions and prove our point. But in all of these cases it is our will that is the impediment to understanding. It is our will that infers what isn’t there, that misses the implications and satisfies itself with untruth and non-reality.

To come to knowledge, we have to interpret our observations and experiences with proper understanding. To do that, we must approach our experiences and our studies without preconceived notions, without faulty thinking and without a personal agenda.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in n this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. (1 Cor 3:18)

If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; (1 Cor 8:2)

We need to be ready to set aside our culture, set aside our agenda, become humble like a child and prepare to do the will of God. Then we stand a chance to gain knowledge.

Thanks for reading.

Tory

PS - Would you like to listen to the audio from this message? Here is a link.