The word ‘tinder’ has become synonymous with an infamous dating app which acts as little more than a meat market.
But it’s a striking name. Tinder is dry, flammable material that’s used to start a fire. The name suggests the excitement of sexual connection. The idea is: it won’t take much to move from this app to ‘more’.
But ‘tinder’ is a word with a significant Christian history. Medieval theologians used the phrase ‘tinder’ or ‘kindling wood’ to describe an unstoppable inner motion to sin.
The fancy theological term for this is ‘concupiscence’. It basically means disordered desire – the kind Paul refers to as ‘all kinds of covetousness’ (Romans 7:9) and ‘evil desire’ (Colossians 3:5). It’s the stuff we feel, and that we want, and that we hanker after, that is sinful.
