A quote from Bonhoeffer’s Meditating on the Word recently crossed my Twitter stream that I thought was interesting:

Grounded in the Scripture, we learn to speak to God in the language that God has spoken to us.

It’s a wonderful sentiment, and true.  I can’t help but wonder, though, if the thought behind it can be extended to how we speak to one another.  True: the Psalms and the prayers of Jesus give us framework and focus for prayer.  And the words of Paul help us reimagine the cosmos as subject to the authority of Jesus.  But one another?  We tend, I think, to view one another in terms of have and have not, of user and used.  But Jesus is clear that that His followers are sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters to one another.  We are to love one another as friends because Jesus has shown us the life-giving love of friendship.

The language of Scripture shouldn’t stop with the songs we sing in worship or the stories we tell to those who have not heard.  Grounded in Scripture, we can learn to speak to one another in the language that God’s people have spoken to one another all throughout the biblical story.