Word Games.

Are you a word aficionado that loves games like Scrabble, Boggle, and UpWords?  Crossword puzzles, Wordle, word search puzzles, and anagrams?  These diversions give wordies everything they need to occupy themselves for hours on end.

A Word Ladder is one such game.  You begin with a starting word and, by changing one letter at a time to create a different (legitimate) word, you work toward an ending word.  For example, can you get from “Recent” to “Latter” in just 8 words?  It is a tough one, ranked “HARD” on wordladder.com.  To be honest, I don’t know the solution.  I even asked ChaptGPT for help . . . and it couldn’t.  It wanted me to input the words so it could verify the solution.  If I knew the words, I wouldn’t need AI to give me a solution.  

So let’s try an easier Word Ladder.  Everyone can get this one:  start with “Conviction” and end with “Convection.”

Did you do it?

Linguistically, it is a simple and obvious single letter change from the “i” to the “e.”  Semantically, however (i.e., in its meaning), there is a huge difference.

The word “conviction” comes from a Latin word (convictionem) meaning “proof,” “to overcome decisively,” and connected to the word for “conquer.”  The core sense is that something has been proven and with subsequent effects of that proof.

For example, a decision is a court of law is based on the evidence that is presented.  If the evidence is “proof” of an allegation, the subsequent decision is called a “conviction.”  The accused has been found guilty.

The word is also used to describe what we believe to be true.  Because of the evidence that is presented, there are facts about the world that we accept as true.  For example, the earth is a sphere and orbits the sun.  This is a conviction we (or most of us) hold.  It affects us directly and indirectly. Directly, it affects the sunrise and sunset every day.  Indirectly it has resulted in the space program that has created such daily benefits as scratch resistant lenses and memory foam mattresses.

Convection, on the other hand, is very different.  It too is sourced in Latin (convectionem).  It refers to that which is carried along, moved, brought together.  In our common language, the most common usage is in the sphere of science where there is a transfer of heat from one object to another.  We then use the term to speak of the process of hot air rising providing lift only to cool in the upper atmosphere and cycle around again.  This cycling of hot air is the technology behind convection ovens and air fryers.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul draws a graphic contrast between “conviction” and “convection.”  He warns this church against the danger of being driven by the convection winds of erroneous doctrines and teachers who misdirect from truth through deceit and manipulation.  This not only erodes the transformational work of the Spirit of God as we grow in faith, it destroys the dynamic of the community of faith.  In Ephesians 4 Paul emphasizes unity and speaking truthfully to one another in love as some of the ways we can serve one another.  As we understand and develop convictions about the depth of the love God has extended to us (Eph. 1-2), we will replicate that same kind of love in our relationships with one another (Eph. 5:1-2).

Many of the differences between truthful conviction and deceitful convections are word games.  They are intended to deceive.  One truthful idea is substituted for another “close” idea, something that sounds good and seems to be similar but in reality is very different.  We don’t know all the convectional currents that threatened the church in Ephesus, but maybe these ideas were popular: “Jesus is a god, one of many; Jesus was a great teacher whose life illustrated great truths which we should seek to emulate; Jesus found favour with God and became deity at His resurrection.”  Whatever it was, it threatened their unity, spiritual transformation, and redefined their understanding of who Jesus is.  

One of the greatest threats to growing in the knowledge of God (Eph. 4:13) is believing the untruth that there is a dichotomy between what we believe (our doctrine) and how we behave.  Many believe doctrine is for the theologians, is the fodder for arguments and debate.  It is for the elite.  

“Not so fast,” says Paul.  “As we learn of God’s grace and the work of Christ (the first half of the book of Ephesians), we strengthen our minds against deceit which will protect our hearts against division.”  The best protection against convection is conviction.

Did you get from “Recent” to “Latter?”  Let me know.  May we also move from convections to convictions, together!