For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it, Galatians 1:13.
The word "conversation" is a word which appears frequently in lists of words regarded as misleading or obsolete in our King James Bible. Everyone from David Cloud, Silly Mark Ward, and to Satan himself advocate for its replacement. Their reasoning is that to a 21st century person, "conversation" has the restricted meaning of talking back and forth. Silly Mark Ward and his even sillier acolytes would label it as a "false friend", a word which misleads the reader.
What is ironic about that reasoning is that each of three named critics of that word advocate educating people. David Cloud has authored more than 200 books in an attempt to uplift and instruct the church. Those books are scattered with gems of wisdom but their overall effect appears to be that they have sucked out whatever life and joy was left in his associated churches until they have become stiff formalistic relics of a once flourishing Fundamentalism.
Silly Mark Ward shills for an online company once called Logos Software but is now known as Faithlife. It is to their economic self interest that people ditch their King James Bibles and begin to search for deeper meanings. Satan has an almost universal lock on the educational systems of the world which at one time had been his bane. Every single attack on a King James Bible is a victory for Satan, sin and hell.
Each of these individuals think that it is easier and more profitable to publish new bibles or reformed King James Bibles and to educate people as to why they should switch to those bibles, than it would be to take a few moments and teach the people something that even their scarcely educated forefathers were able to comprehend quite well.
When the Apostle Paul mentioned his conversation in the Jews religion, it becomes obvious that this was not a chit chat or formal discussion. In actuality it was a way of life. It was a lifestyle and philosophy in which he was fully immersed. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it this way:
Conversation: 1. The action of living or having one's being in a place or among persons. Also figurative of one's spiritual being. Obsolete.
2. The action of consorting or having dealings with others; living together; commerce, intercourse, society, intimacy. Obsolete.
Before you hyperventilate over the word "obsolete", keep in mind what else is obsolete in the 21st century.
1: Strictures against sodomy
2: A merit based system
3: Virginity until marriage
4: A King James Bible
5: Personal holiness
You might ask, "why then do we still hold to these things in our churches?". We hold to them because despite the slide of our society into decadence, we educate our people biblically. If time was spent explaining what certain words meant, and if preachers would learn to instruct their people rather than to criticize the bible, our churches would have the same access to biblical truth that motivated our forefathers.
Take a few moments. Teach a child what "conversation means in a King James Bible. Then show them Ephesians 2:3; Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That child will have no problem realizing that conversation means lifestyle.
I was recently sent a link to an online prognosticator trying to imitate a bible teacher. He quoted Philippians 3:20 in which the Apostle Paul said, Our conversation is in heaven. He made the claim that God speaks to us through the stars. He used the verse to say that configurations of stars, planets and asteroids were messages from God if we would only look up and see them. I'm not sure how we were supposed to answer back using the stars since the modern definition of conversation includes dialog on both sides.
For those of us who still hold to a King James Bible and who have a modicum of education, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, Philippians 1:27.