Opus 2011-49, It’s All in the Adjectives

Have you noticed how many great nouns are ruined by the adjectives that precede them?

Think about these words and what they really mean:  Justice, sex, music, righteousness, law, and discrimination.  Yes, discrimination was once considered a good thing.  If you had discriminating taste you were a person of culture and class.  You could probably make up your own list.

Now add some adjectives.  Sex was created as a gift of God to marriage.  Look at how marriage is described in Proverbs 5:18-19 (NASB)

Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.

As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.

Sounds good to me.

For most animals it is a function of reproduction only.  Unless she is in “heat” the female isn’t interested.  When he smells the right hormone the male can’t control himself.  Any other time, it ain’t going to happen.  There may be some exceptions but with humans it is an act of commitment and intimacy.  At least that is what it was designed for.  Enter the adjectives and you get premarital sex and many other versions.  Watching modern pagans reminds me of sitting in Vietnam and for entertainment watching the big dogs fight over who got to copulate with the bitch in heat.  (This is the proper use of the word “bitch”.)  Sin adds an adjective and beauty is turned to trash.  Love becomes lust.

Justice becomes social justice.  You take a great principle of God, based on eternal principles, and turn it into a tool of favoritism.  Social justice is anything but just.  It is coercion by the government to force people to give unfair advantage to whoever is the social flavor of the month.  We always hear about the verses talking about concern for the poor.  They exist.  No one can argue, but how come you never hear this one,

(Leviticus 19:15 KJV)  Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.

Justice is based on righteousness not bank balance.

Or how about the term “rap music?”  I have not listened to much of it but when you drive a car in LA you are going to hear it if you want to or not.  I could almost accept it as poetry, but it has nothing to do with music.  Even as poetry it has something to be desired.  You see, it the rapper can’t think of a word, he makes one up.  Or he puts in a word that rhymes but gives it a whole new meaning because he needs something to sound right.  And what about rhythm?  If the words don’t bounce right, you add more syllables.  You know how J. Vernon McGee used to make “God” a three syllable word?  That means he could have been a rapper.  (I am sure he would forgive me for that.)

You get the point?  How do you change the meaning of your words by adding adjectives?  What kind of adjectives do your attitudes put in from of the nouns of your life?  Or what kind of adverbs do your actions put in front of the verbs? 

homo unius libri