The meaning of meaning

Have you ever thought about ‘meaning’? What is meaning? How does a person properly communicate meaning and does meaning mean anything?

Lost yet?

Stay with me, because this is important. Consider the phrase “God is good”. What does that mean? The phrase—standing by itself—could mean many things; but much more needs to be known about the phrase before it has any real meaning. If a Hindu or Muslim used this phrase, it would mean something entirely different that if a Christian said it. A Hindu could be referring to any number of things as God, and a Muslim would be referring to Allah, while a Christian would obviously be referring to Yahweh who is the God of the Bible. Without any background, a Christian might hear this phrase on television or see it in a magazine and think, “Amen, of course he is good.” Then, when that Christian turns off the TV or closes the magazine he or she is reading, he/she may be shocked to realize that he/she is reading a new age magazine who’s god is—well—everything.

For any sentence, phrase, or proposition to carry meaning it needs these integral ingredients. First of all, the words in the proposition need to have a ‘sense’. What is meant by sense is that the words in the sentence can be understood in and of themselves. We need to understand the meanings of the words ‘God’ and ‘good’ to understand that God is good. Second, we need to understand the ‘referent’ of the proposition. In our phrase God is good, we need to know which God is being referred to and what is meant by the word good when it is used as a description of God. Third, we need an ‘assertion’. The assertion is basically the intent behind the phrase, and the assertion can only be understood if we know things about the person asserting the phrase. Who is the person? What are that person’s beliefs? Who is their god and what do they believe goodness to be? Why are they using that particular proposition at this particular time?

Thinking through anything you hear and read with these guidelines is more important than you may think. The reason statements in the media and verses in the Bible are so easily taken out of context and misunderstood is because people do not discipline themselves in their communication to discover true and genuine meaning. All statements have what philosophers call a ‘truth value’. A statement is either true or false, but unless people look into the sense, referent, and assertion of a phrase upon hearing or reading it, a person will be inclined to believe anything that sounds good or tickles the ear, which is something the Scripture strictly warns us about (1 Tim 4:3).

Many philosophers agree that it is not just understanding a proposition that is crucial for the individual, but relaying them is important as well. Imagine if I were to approach you and tell you that God is good. Even if you understand the sense of the word ‘God’ and you know what the word ‘good’ means, and even if you know that I claim to be a follower of Jesus and that he is the God that I am referring to, you have to look at my life and behavior to determine what I mean by the phrase, which would be seeking out the assertion of the proposition. If I drink too much, ignore my children, sleep around with multiple women, and only attend church once or twice a month, what are you going to think I mean when I say that God is good? You might think I mean that I like God and think he is good because he lets me get away with living like an idiot. Then you may think that this is what all Christians mean when they say that God is good, and if that’s the only picture you have of the goodness of the God of the Bible, you have an incorrect picture.

What’s the point of all of this? Meaning matters. If you are lazy in searching for the real meaning and truth value of things you read and hear, you will be led away from truth more often than you realize. If you do not live consistent with what you claim to believe, no one will properly grasp anything you are attempting to communicate. God deserves more from us than our laziness, don’t you agree?