When worldly friends ask if you’re still a party animal who will join in their folly and sin, tell them, “I ain’t neither.” What you would mean is, “I’m not a party animal any more.” Being in denial this way is a “good thing.”

“There is no speech or are there words, whose voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:3, ESV).

Sometimes I like to joke that I intend to teach “English as a Second Language” here in western Tennessee. Then we can work on such features as the “Tennessee Double Negative” (“I ain’t got none”), which, if two negatives make a positive, means “I have some!” We could also deal with that great Tennessee denial: “I ain’t neither!” which, with the two negatives must mean, “I am too!”

More seriously, there are those whose grammar is theologically incorrect. The term “committed Christian”, for instance, is redundant. What other kind of Christian is there? Christ calls us all to serve him with all of our hearts. The Lord calls us to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1). There are no halfhearted sacrifices. You either give your all, unreservedly, or you are withholding something. You can’t hold back, and still be sacrificial. To serve him half-heartedly is not to be an undedicated Christian, but to not be a Christian at all.

The term “Born Again Christian” is also redundant. If he is “born again,” he is a Christian. If he is a “Christian,” then he has been born again, of “water and the Spirit” (John 3:3-5).

So when Satan seeks the leftovers from what you gave God, tell him, “I ain’t got none.” What you would mean is, “there is nothing left over.” When worldly friends ask if you’re still a party animal who will join in their folly and sin, tell them, “I ain’t neither.” What you would mean is, “I’m not a party animal any more.” Being in denial this way is a “good thing.”

You might not be grammatically correct, but you certainly would be theologically correct! And being right with your God is far more important than being right with your grammar!

Stan Mitchell

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