Are you gung ho about anything? Has anyone ever described you as being gung ho about anything? We know that it means you are excited and ready to conquer at all costs. But where did we get this term?
“If you think that expression doesn’t look like it originated in English, you’d be right. Gung ho is a form of a Mandarin Chinese expression, gōnghé, which was in turn clipped from the name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, or Zhōngguó Gōngyè Hézuò Shè. Gung ho is therefore effectively a Chinese acronym: the gung comes from the first part of gōng yè (工业, “industry”), while the ho comes from the first part of hezuo (合作, “cooperative”).”1
Cooperative industry doesn’t exactly sound like enthusiasm and excitement. How did we get our interpretation of gung ho? It’s all thanks to Brigadier General Evans Fordyce Carlson, USMC.
Carlson started his career in the Army before becoming a Marine. Starting as a 2nd Lieutenant, he did three tours of duty in China and left the China tours as a Captain. While in China, he studied the Mandarin language. “It was during those decades in China that Carlson encountered the Industrial Cooperative, or Zhōngguó Gōngyè Hézuò Shè. And, having studied a little Mandarin, he picked up on the term gōng yè in particular, which he interpreted (incorrectly) as meaning “working together.”2
Though misinterpreted and Anglicized to gung ho instead of gōng yè, now Lt. Colonel Carlson used this to rally his men known as Carlson’s Raiders during WWII.3 ““I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all the soldiers dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over,” Carlson explained to Life magazine in 1943. “I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Co-Operatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together—Work in Harmony. … My motto caught on and they began to call themselves the Gung Ho Battalion.”4
The rest is history and a part of our vocabulary today.
As Christians, God wants us to be gung ho about His work. Titus 2:11-14 says, “For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
In the original Greek, the root word for zealous is zēloō. It means to burn with an ardent, passionate fervor and pursuit of something, in this case, good works. Think of all the good works we can do for the Lord: evangelism, discipleship, serving, caring, loving, helping, and so much more. According to Titus, our zeal will be cooled if we permit ungodliness and worldly lusts into our lives and if we are looking for Jesus to return at any moment.
Too many Christians are not gung ho for the Lord. Jesus acknowledged this in the church of Laodicea. Speaking to that church in Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus said, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
The solution to this was found in Revelation 3:18-19. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (19) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Put simply, repent and get hot!
Let’s carefully live a gung ho life for the Lord. We don’t want to come off to others as know-it-alls who are pushy or aggressive. Our gung ho-ness needs to be tempered with grace, charity, and compassion for both the saved and the lost.
And, may we have a testimony like Epaphras. “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. (13) For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.” (Colossians 4:12-13)
1https://www.mentalfloss.com/gung-ho-phrase-origins
2Ibid.
3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_Carlson
4https://www.mentalfloss.com/gung-ho-phrase-origins
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