Among the many words whose overuse tires me (inflection point, iconic, deconstruction, intersectional, trauma) is the word binary. Used as an adjective, binary means “compounded or consisting of or marked by two things or parts.” As used in our culture, it tends to have to do with mutually opposed ideas, concepts, or realities. A light switch with its on/off reality (a light can’t be sorta on or sorta off) is binary. But in our culture, to describe something as binary has come to take on a  moral tone. It turns out that being binary may be good or it may be bad depending on the context and the speaker’s perspective. For some, to assert a binary nature to sex and gender is a very evil thing to do. For others, progressive and populist, to understand that this year’s presidential election is binary in nature, pitting ultimate good against absolute evil, is a very good thing to do.

What we used to call either/or is now called binary, and we apply the term indiscriminately and with inappropriate moral meaning. In fact, the state of being binary is one of those “just is” realities, in and of itself devoid of moral weight.

To be sure, the Bible has its share of either/or, binary, propositions. “Either serve the gods across the river, or serve the Lord,” Joshua told the people. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” he said. (Joshua 24:15) “It’s either mammon or God,” Jesus said.  (Matthew 6:24) Discipleship is not always a fluid thing. We either follow him or we don’t.  In the end, you can’t be a sorta Christian.

But in life, for sure in the life of the disciple, some things are both/and. We’re not always stuck in a binary choice between, say, the rock of faith and the hard place of works.  The primacy of faith cannot be denied, but the grace of faith is given for the doing of good works, Paul tells the Ephesians.(Ephesians 2:8-10) James writes that our works define our faith. (James 2:14-18) If we make faith and works a morally laden binary choice, we will have missed the joy of discipleship.

Our culture foolishly misunderstands the idea of the binary.  In fact, some things are mutually exclusive – good and evil, light and dark, God’s created order and our rebellion-induced chaos. But some binaries are a wonderful both/and.  Faith and works. Trust and obedience, in all things (including pain and loss and sorrow) God working for good.

Wisdom may not be in finding ourselves always on the right side of history and desperately and continually changing our beliefs and our practices to reflect the most recent idea of the correct side of things. There is no “right side” of history, by the way. The beginning of wisdom may be in our fear of the one who has created some things to be a gracious either/or and other things to be a joyful both/and.

I’m tired of the way we use the word binary.