Thread:

Our metaphors matter. All metaphors highlight some truths & hide others.

When we talk of love as a journey (“look how far we’ve come”), we hide other ideas of love. E.g love as insanity (“I’m crazy about her”) or love as a natural force (“I’m drawn to him”)

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That’s why we use multiple metaphors. One metaphor cannot communicate everything about a huge idea like LOVE.

So, if we say “people are worms” (whether or not you agree it’s an appropriate metaphor), that metaphor DOES hide the truths about the value of people.

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Biblical Metaphors of value like “his treasured people” (Deut 14:2), a silver coin (Luke 15), & a valued son (Luke 15) are hidden by the worm metaphor

Now, we can’t critique a metaphor for not expressing every truth. It can’t. But we can ask if metaphor is appropriate.

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We can also (and should also) ask about what we gain/lose by using a metaphor.

Finally, we should also ask if the worm metaphor or those like it are the primary/dominant way we think about people. If so, then we may have a faulty understanding of what the Bible teaches

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(There’s also cultural factors that shape people like the hymn writer, but that’s for another day)

this thread is not an argument for or against the metaphor. But we should think deeply about our metaphors for people.

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