COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—The Hebrew word “checed,” traditionally translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love,” will more accurately be translated as “reckless love” in a new edition of The Message to be released in December, the publisher confirmed Thursday.
This change is a response to a popular Bethel Music worship song, which refers to God’s love as “reckless.”
This new edition of The Message is said to more accurately portray what the men who wrote the Bible really meant when they penned the Psalms and other passages of Scriptures, the publisher stated, providing the following comparison against the ESV out of 2 Chronicles 6:14b:
ESV: “keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart…”
MSG: “keeping covenant and showing reckless love, tearing down every obstacle in its way while chasing the unrepentant sinner no matter how far they run…”
“We are sick of people who are trying to make the love of God sound docile, measured, and boring,” said youth minister Chad Jackman, leader of Vigilante Student Ministries at Thrive Church in Atlanta, Georgia. “You can kinda understand why people would say that God loves unconditionally, but that just doesn’t have the same impact that calling God’s love ‘reckless’ does. Powerful stuff.”
One high school student noted on her Facebook page, “It’s just easier to understand, like, you totally get it more if someone says a ‘reckless driver’ instead of like an ‘unconditional driver’ that is just, like, makes much more sense, amirite? #recklesslovefam.”
In unconfirmed reports, publishers of the Holman Christian Standard Bible are also considering changing Ephesians 5:18 to, “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to steadfast living, but be filled by the Spirit:”
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