As Christians we are called to fol­low in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:21), to be faithful, holy and fully committed as He was. To do so we must ensure that our actions are in line with the teachings of Scripture. Indeed, Scripture has been given to us to guide us in every sphere of our daily living. As the Confes­sion of Faith declares, it is our 'rule of faith and life'. In this talk I would like to examine what this principle means for the way in which we use language and write documents - in particular, given the audi­ence, legal documents.

As Scripture is our rule, we should start with Scripture. We might concentrate on 1 Corinthians 12-14. Verses 4-7 of chapter 12 make it clear that we are not all given the same gifts or appointed to the same kind of service. Although we have different gifts and different fields of serv­ice, nevertheless we are dependent for sal­vation on the same Lord and are duty bound to Him. Moreover the gifts we have been given are for the common good and not for our benefit alone. So some become preachers, some lawyers and some electri­cians or linguists, and so forth. As a result, through God's gracious providence, all our various needs are catered for.

There is no unfairness or uneven­ness in this dispensation. Verses 12-26 proceed to emphasise that each individual is as important as the other and each is to be held in honour. None of us can boast that we are more valuable than our fellows; nor can any of us claim that we are superior to everyone else on the basis of our gifts or area of service. As the Bible puts it: 'the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you", and those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable'.

These verses require us to exam­ine closely how we conduct ourselves in our professions or occupations. Do we imagine that we should be accorded special respect in the community, that somehow we are a cut above most and deserve more? Do we really operate for the good of the community or is our sole concern for our own comfort and interests? Coming close to home, can we say that the way lawyers write is really for the profit and benefit of all? Consider these examples:

"The said Borrower covenants and under­takes not to fail or omit to pay on the due date for payment as herein provided any of the said installments of the moneys which the said Borrower has hereinbefore covenanted and undertaken to pay to the said Bank on the dates and at the times herein provided PROVIDED THAT if the said Borrower fails or omits to so pay the said moneys on the due dates as aforesaid then the said Bank may in its absolute discretion at any time thereafter cancel and determine the loan hereinbefore referred to."

"The provisions of sections 43 and 48 shall with such modifications as are neces­sary extend and apply to and in relation to this Division and, without affecting the generality of the foregoing, in particular with the modification that (a) a reference to eggs or to eggs or egg products shall be construed as a reference to citrus fruit. "

No way can we argue that these documents are profitable for anyone. To force borrowers to read 96 words in a cumbersome sentence to learn that 'the bank may cancel the loan if the borrower does not pay an instalment on time' (16 words) or to require readers to interpret any occurrence of eggs or egg products as citrus fruit is grossly inconsiderate. It is an unskillful use of language.

A poor quality of language⤒🔗

Professionals who write like this cannot claim to be using their gifts profit­ably for the community. They are concen­trating solely on the message and being satisfied so long as they express it accurately. They show no concern for their readers and leave it to them to work out the meaning as best they can. But this is an improper and half-baked use of language for when we write or speak, we have both a message and an audience to whom we want to convey that message. If we are going to write and speak well and benefi­cially, we have to do all we can to help our audience to understand the message as we do. Writers and speakers have the respon­sibility not only to be accurate but also to be clear.

It is not just non-lawyers who are being given trouble by documents like these. Law firms are losing cases for clients because their documents are con­fusing. A major bank has had to rewrite its guarantee because its managers could not understand it and explain it to clients prop­erly. A few years ago, when asked whether he thought a new insurance policy in plain English was better than the traditional one in legalese it replaced, the then Chief Jus­tice of New South Wales admitted that 'he could never bring himself to read the old policy — he just trusted that the insurance company was honourable'!

We must stop pretending that legalese is good writing. It is nothing of the sort. As the Renton Committee in the United Kingdom observed: "To the ordi­nary citizen the provision in the statute book might sometimes as well be written in a foreign language for all the help he may expect to obtain there as to his rights and duties under the laws."

The Committee might well have been thinking of our own Dangerous Goods Act 1975 with its definition of explosive as: "In a Division of this Part, except Division 3 and this Division, 'explosive' does not include any explosive prescribed as an explosive in respect of which the Division does not apply"!

A better way←⤒🔗

The tragedy is that this situation need not be. Legal documents have been being written in plain language since 1975. This year is the 20th anniversary as far as Australia is concerned. Mallesons Stephen Jaques, one of our top five legal firms for which I am a plain language consultant, has pursued an active plain English policy for 8 years and has been converting its precedents and providing clients with com­prehensible documents. Mortgages, insur­ance policies, leases, contracts, Acts of parliament, procedure manuals, and agree­ments have appeared in plain language. Legal precision has not been placed in jeopardy. On the contrary, it is protected because it is easier to detect errors in thinking when the language in a document is clear and not inflated or convoluted.

It only stands to reason that we should be able to get excellent documents with plain English. After all, it is only good English. It avoids inflated and con­voluted expressions which require a lot of effort on the part of readers to unravel and decipher. It strives to be readily comprehensible and straightforward so that read­ers can understand the message readily and concentrate on its content.

Moreover, it is sensitive to the needs of its readers and does not leave them mystified or confused. For instance, a writer of a plain language mortgage will not include a sentence such as "The lender has the right of presentment" and leave the borrower puzzled. Instead, a plain lan­guage mortgage is likely to present the material as "The lender has the right to demand payment of amounts due (known as presentment)". It demonstrates the same skill of Shakespeare, who could write the multitudinous seas incardine for those in the audience with a classical training, and then explain it for others in the next line with making the green seas red.

The whole objective in writing plainly is to achieve clarity along with accuracy. Let me stress this: clarity in association with accuracy — not in place of it. In producing a document, we should be enabling those who are affected by it to understand their rights and obligations. There is something seriously wrong when we do not allow a person to plead ignorance of the law as a defence and then confront them with laws that are incomprehensible. There is something grievously awry when profounder of the law — or of any subject — do not make the effort to be easily under­stood

Anyone can write gobbledegook or legalese. To write plainly is far more challenging. But it is also more satisfying because it enables us to walk in the way of the Lord and to act for the common good of others. We demonstrate a vital concern for the welfare of other human beings, our readers, and not just a narrow interest in our subject.

Obscurity forbidden by Scripture←⤒🔗

We need to go a step further. Legalese — or any form of obscure writing — is not just bad writing: it is expressly forbidden by Scripture. This takes us into chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, in which the Holy Spirit discusses the gift of tongues.

In verse 2 the Spirit instructs us that persons speaking in tongues are speaking only to God. They are not speaking to their fellows because they cannot be understood by them. In verse 28, while verifying the reality and worth of the gift, the Holy Ghost nonetheless requires a person with the gift of tongues not to use it in a church meeting if there is no-one present who can interpret what is being said for the benefit of others present.

Indeed the whole emphasis in chap­ter 14 is on speaking to enrich others — in the words of verse 3 'to strengthen, encour­age and comfort them'. It is the edification of others in the truths of the Gospel that should be our main impetus in speaking, and certainly not our own self glory or satisfaction. We are to excel in gifts that buildup others (verse 12). As the Scripture so forcibly puts it in verse 19: I would rather speak five intelligible words to in­struct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

As the Scripture declares if we speak in a way that no-one else can understand, even if it is in a tongue and with a spiritual message, we may as well be speaking in a foreign language (verse 11).

If this stricture is true for the gift of tongues, it also applies to convoluted legal writing which is so difficult to under­stand and which cloaks meaning and frus­trates rather than enlightens. Verse 1 of chapter 13 explains why it should be de­nounced and avoided: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

The use of inflated, grandiose, ver­bose language which makes it hard for others to learn and gives them no comfort is unloving. All our efforts to appear erudite and masterful are vain because we are more concerned with our own reputa­tion or with establishing that we belong to a profession than with helping others into the light. We cannot claim a love for others and a passion for their wellbeing if we put linguistic obstacles in the way of their edification. If our chief desire is to sound grand and eloquent with little care whether others can grasp our message with ease and pleasure, then we have no more worth in God's sight than clanging cymbals.

Love and service: the twin essentials←⤒🔗

Love is the hallmark of our God. He is not just loving but as He informs us in 1 John 4:8, He 'is love'. The Psalms con­tinually speak of His unfailing love. It is this quality which separates our God from manmade gods. Where they are distant, arbitrary, capricious, malevolent even, He is loving and merciful. His love is not abstract or passive but lives and manifests itself in action and service. It was His love that led Him to send His Son Jesus Christ to be our redemption (John 3:16).

That is the other glory of our God. From His love springs service. Of the Lord Jesus it is said in Philippians 2:7: (He) made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant.

His death on the cross was an act of service both to the Father so that He might be reconciled to us, and to us that we might be received. Christ's coming was in serv­ice to the Father and to us. We miss so much if we forget that our Lord Jesus — He who was equal with God, a Person of the Trinity — was prepared to serve us as sav­iour. It is an unsearchable love, an amaz­ing condescension.

It is also a powerful lesson and model. As Christ Himself taught: Who­ever wants to be great among you must be your servant (Matthew 20:26)

We are back to 1 Corinthians 12-14. All we do and write and say must be for the common good. If it does not strengthen, enlighten and comfort, it is not loving and we are not acting usefully as our Lord would have us act.

The great marvel of our regenera­tion is that we are called to this life of love and service. We are not reborn to be useless, empty creatures but by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit working in us we can achieve deeds of great profit and kindness. By God's love our recreation is more marvellous than our creation. In thankfulness we must do all we can to benefit our clients, our neighbours, and any whom we can serve. Whether we write law, or witness to Christ, we must be prepared and strive to write and speak clearly so that others might readily understand and enjoy the blessings and benefits that flow from the gifts that God has given us.

It is a wonderful privilege to have a profession and to drink deep in a branch of knowledge. It is even a greater privilege to make the benefits of that knowledge avail­able to others as well as to ourselves. It moves us closer to the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). We cannot pretend that we have to use technical terms, such as subrogation, escrow, and mutatis mutandis — or even justification and atonement — and not take the trouble to explain them to others. We cannot cling to verbiage, ar­cane words and unnecessarily complicated structures simply because they are custom­ary. We were not given the knowledge of law — or of salvation — just for ourselves. As God showers His gifts on us, so we should share them with others.

Of Christ it was said that 'the com­mon people heard Him gladly' (Mark 12:37). We should so speak and write on any subject that people would respond to our words in the same way.