There are many bible concepts that are misunderstood because of the secular interpretation that has been imputed to them. A few include;

Foolishness: In the secular, this means to lack proper intelligence. But in bible usage, foolishness is any conviction or philosophy of life that rivals God’s ordained way;

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’”

What it means to be a god is to be sovereign to the extent of being able to impose a lifestyle on your subjects; in fact, only God should be able to do such a thing. Being God is being the final authority to wisdom; to replace God’s sovereign wisdom with your own or otherwise is to rob Him of godhood over your life. A typical variant of this is such statements as “it’s my life” or “God will understand”.

Wickedness: In secular language this means being cruel to others, but biblical meaning is deeper than this. To be wicked is to say “no one will call me to account” that is, “God will not call me to account”; being wicked is to lack godly reverence. If we live our lives to please ourselves rather than such that God will not be displeased by our behaviour, we would be wicked; that is why such sins as malice, pride and evil thinking have sin status at all.

Death: In secular language, death means not to be alive; that is, to stop breathing. But in bible language, death means not to be able to exercise ones existence in grace with God. Death is being cut off from God’s power. If a woman was barren, she is said to have death in her womb. If when we need to use money, we are not able to make up the amount, death is said to be in our pocket. If a challenge comes which we are not able to influence the situation positively, we are said to be dead in weakness as far as that situation is concerned. If we influence the situation negatively, death is said to have dominion over us as far as the situation is concerned; we reach “a dead end”.

Ironically, the opposite of death in this context is the spirit of joy; this is where we get “the joy of salvation” from; the joy of being saved from a situation that would otherwise cut us off from success (the expression of the life that is within us). Power is the potential to exercise life; the innate ability to successfully influence our environment, if we can not successfully influence our environment on an issue, then we are said to be dead as far as the issue is concerned.

When we understand what the bible means when it says some things, we would less likely confuse the meaning of the words.