"I think if we were given the scriptures it was not so that we could prove we were right about everything. If we were given the scriptures it was to humble us into realizing that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing."
--Rich Mullins
I love the Bible, I really do. But lately I'm finding that I'm very annoyed by the Bible-thumpers, the Bible-beaters, the Bible-hawkers. It's not the message of the Bible I find offputting, it's the messengers.
They make my skin crawl, they make me cringe with their certainty, their self-righteousness, their lack of humility.
But I don't have that reaction to the Bible itself. I find peace, comfort, and strength in its pages. I find hope in its promises. This is not to say that I always understand the Bible or find that it consistently reconfirms what I already believe. I often find it challenging, discomfiting, and even upsetting at points. I find it hard to understand as often as not. But I have come to believe that I don't have to always understand, be comfortable with or "get" what the Bible says for it to be useful. The big themes of the Bible are clear to me. I know the Author so I don't have to understand everything He says all at once or all the time. In fact the more I read the Bible, the more I realize how little I really understand--and the more I realize how big God really is.
I'm more and more convinced that much of our fidelity to the Bible, is really a fidelity to our understanding of the Bible. It seems to me that people follow a well-worn track most of the time, a track usually established by their denomination--the same key verses, the same proof texts lined up to reach a conclusion that at one time might have been fresh and exciting but now feels forgone. We crave stability and certainty. And I get that. It's a normal human desire. But I don't know that that is what God is looking for us to have. I do know that if you're getting certainty from everything you read in the Bible, you're not reading the whole Bible.
I find a lot of of people on the verge of worshiping the Bible--Biblolatry, I call it. I know people who are steeped in Biblical knowledge and yet it doesn't seem to have had any meaningful impact on their lives. At least when it comes to how they treat other people. All that Bible study and yet they still do horrible things.
Here's what I'm convicted the Bible is not, and what it is:
What the Bible is not: A factual history book in the traditional sense. What the Bible is: True. It is the true story of God's interaction with and investment in human beings
What the Bible is not: intended as guidebook to practical matters of living in the 21st century. I've become very skeptical of notions of the "Biblical" approach to finances, marriage, health etc: What the Bible is: a timeless guide to what matters to God, what His goals are, who He is. It is true that "all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we re wrong and teaches us to do right." 2 Timothy 3:16. But we are talking big themes here--not an uninformed application of what we think it says, regardless of culture or context.
What the Bible is not: a means of Salvation. What the Bible is: the foundation for our faith. As 2 Timothy 3:15 says right before the famous passage about all scripture, the Scriptures have "given us the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus." The story of Jesus, of salvation, of resurrection and the hope of eternal life--all of this is found in the pages of Scripture and nowhere else. We can never discard the Bible and still somehow call ourselves Christians. Without the Bible, we would have nothing.
What the Bible is not: merely about collecting information, knowledge, and correct interpretation: What the Bible is: validation for what we've experienced with God and vice versa. We've tested what the Bible says and found it true. In 2 Peter 1:19 right before the famous passage about no prophecy of Scripture, Peter says that because of the experience they had with Jesus, they have even greater confidence in the message of proclaimed by the prophets. What I read, I am experiencing. What I'm experiencing, I find reflected in the Bible.
The Bible, like church, connects us to the larger community. It's not meant to be studied or understood in isolation. The Protestant overcorrection of the Catholic's church's traditional approach that encouraged only the experts to engage with the Bible, is our tendency to think that any ordinary person can have a complete and thorough understanding of the Bible through just their own private reading--with the Holy Spirit's guidance of course. Can an ordinary person find inspiration, correction, guidance, and faith through their reading of the Bible? Absolutely. But are they qualified to make authoritative declarations about what it teaches that brook no argument? Absolutely not.
I think we need to be much more cautious than we have been about authoritative "Thus Saith the Lord's" and especially cautious of declarations about the "plain Word of God." We don't always understand what God is saying--and that's okay. And the Word of God is not always plain--even, and perhaps, especially when it seems so and it happens to suit our own preferences and prejudices. You ever notice that when someone is using the Bible to reprove and correct, it's invariably someone else who needs the reproof and correction? In our limited understanding, we know enough about what the Bible teaches to enter into a relationship with Jesus, but we are far, very far, from knowing everything.
I find that those who smugly quote 2 Timothy 4:3 that "a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers that will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear" aren't actually challenged by the Bible much at all! They are confident in their understanding and interpretation. Nothing they read upsets them. . .though there is plenty to upset those loose living liberal "Christians." It begs the question of whether it isn't in fact the arbiters of the Word who want their ears tickled with messages that confirm what they already believe.
I'm convicted that while the Bible is essential to our faith, it is not the center of our faith. That center is found not in a book, but in a Person.
"You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me!"
--Jesus, as quoted in John 5:39
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