Are You Getting the "Message"?

The Bible study lesson in church this morning touched on 1 John 1:5, and one word in that verse captured my attention:  "message."

Through a quick referral to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, I found that this word is only used seven times in the Authorized Version, as summarized below:

1.  Judg. 3:20:  Ehud's "message from God" for King Eglon of Moab (a dagger!)
2.  1 Kings 20:12:  Ahab's defiant message for Benhadad, as he laid siege to Samaria
3.  Prov. 26:6:  Sending a message by a hand of a fool is harmful
4.  Hag. 1:13:  the LORD's message unto the Judean remnant through Haggai
5.  Luke 19:14:  the rebellious citizens' message to the nobleman in the parable of the pounds
6.  1 John 1:5:  a doctrinal aspect of the kingdom gospel preached by the Lord Jesus (Mt. 4:17, 9:35, 15:24; John 1:11; Rom. 15:8) concerning God's character
7.  1 John 3:11: a practical aspect of the kingdom gospel--loving the brethren 

So in the AV, "message" is used in a prophetic, kingdom context every time it appears.  It's not used by the apostle Paul in his epistles a single time.  True, our gospel of grace is indeed a message, but it's interesting that Paul doesn't use the word. 

I believe that the AV's use of a word fixes its connotation within the Bible and in life itself.  So if you come across a "Bible" called The Message, you might proceed with caution, if you're trying to follow Paul.  The Message is a free paraphrase of the scripture, not a word-for-word translation of the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek texts like the AV, so it's technically not a Bible at all.  In my opinion, if one heeds The Message, it will lead him away from Paul, who commanded us to "Consider what I say;" (e.g. words he used or didn't use), and to "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13). 

The point of this post is this: take note of how the AV uses or doesn't use certain words, and let that guide you as to whether something is good or bad.  For homework, look up the words philosophy (Col. 2:8) and policy (Dan. 8:25).  Both of these words are used one time in the AV.  Good or bad contexts?  What has your real life experience been with these words?  Paul's wasn't very good (Acts 17:18) :)...