Experiencing A New Language

When adults attempt to learn a new language, they are often encouraged to immerse themselves in a culture that speaks that language. It’s usually insufficient to learn the desired language from a book or from the outside; one typically must learn the language from direct experience, from the inside. The same is true for knowledge of Christ. In Christian theology, Jesus is “the Word” of God (John 1:1). His history is, in essence, the language of God. In the story of Christ—through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—God speaks a word of love to humanity, a word written in blood. Willingness to suffer for the beloved is one of the primary “love languages” of God. This is why Paul can say, in Romans 5:8, that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (emphasis added). To truly know Jesus—apprehending the Word of God, understanding the language of God, comprehending the story of Christ—we must immerse ourselves in the divine language, which is a language of love spoken through pain and suffering. We must experience this language firsthand. It’s not enough to have a “head knowledge” of it or to learn it from the outside. We must learn it from within, from the inside. This means we must descend into the abyss, but it also means we must rise into the heavens. It means we must suffer, but it also means we must be glorified. We must learn to speak love in and through pain (often through empathy and self-sacrifice), and we must learn to hear and experience love in and through pain (often through the empathy and self-sacrifice of others). We must embody or imbibe the suffering love of God—the God who suffers with us and for us because he loves us—in our lives. Only then will we truly learn, and truly know, the language of God: the language of suffering love.