Jimbo's Jots

Words shape how we see people.

Several years ago, I heard my friend, Don McLaughlin, Minister at the North Atlanta Church of Christ, speak about a specific Greek word katagoreō. I reached out to him to help me remember again. Most of what you will read next is a portion of that conversation.

He said this word is usually translated as “accuse” or “accuser.” But it’s also the root of our English word category. That connection matters. At its core, the word carries the idea of speaking against someone by placing them into a condemning category—a label that justifies dismissal, misuse, or harm.

We see this in the way Jesus was treated. He was accused of being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” That wasn’t a neutral description; it was a category meant to discredit Him. Rather than engage His life and teaching, His opponents reduced Him to a label.

The word appears again in John 8:6, where religious leaders bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, seeking to accuse Him. The woman had already been reduced to her sin, and now Jesus Himself was being forced into a category that could be used against Him. The same dynamic shows up in the false accusations at His “trial,” where labeling Him became the path to justifying His death.

Scripture names the source of this pattern in Revelation 12, where Satan is called the accuser of the brothers—literally, the categorizer. He is the one who divides and condemns, creating labels that make destruction seem righteous.

Jesus consistently refuses this way of seeing. He sees people, not just categories. He speaks truth without condemnation and extends mercy without denial.

That leaves us with a searching question: Where might we be using categories to accuse rather than to love?

In Christ, we are no longer defined by labels that condemn us, but by the grace that restores us.

Be blessed! Be a blessing!