Before you hit “unfollow” or reach for the pitchforks, let me clarify what I mean by this statement.
There are dozens of scriptures and ideas in the Bible that even the most devout Biblicist flat out rejects and ignores. For example:
Most Christians do not greet one another with a holy kiss, although Paul commands Christians to do this four times in the New Testament.
Most Christians do not forbid women to cut their hair, nor do they consider long hair on men to be sinful; something Paul appears to command churches to enforce in his letter to the Corinthians.
Most Christians would not approve of slave-labor, even though Paul affirms the practice of slavery and tells slaves to remain with their masters and masters to be nice to their slaves.
Most Christians today would not endorse polygamy, even though the Bible nowhere speaks out against the practice.
Most Christians don’t gather with signs at the County Court House to protest divorce, even though Jesus specifically speaks against it and equates it with adultery.
So, obviously, these same Christians who make bold claims about "believing everything in the Bible", outright dismiss many things that this same Bible tells them to do, or not to do.
That means, Christians really don’t believe everything in the Bible, even if they claim to believe that the Bible is the “Word of God” and infallible.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to argue that Christians today should take a “God said it, I believe it and that settles it” approach. Not at all. I think it’s a wonderful thing that we’ve continued to think about what the Bible teaches in the light of who Christ is, rather than holding blindly to the letter of the Law.
The driving factor here is the indwelling presence of Jesus. We’re not left with a book to guide us. We have the living Spirit of Christ – the actual “Word of God” – living within us.
In other words, over time the Church has slowly begun to see more truth as it is continuously revealed through the eyes, character and heart, of Jesus.
Our Lord commands us to love God and to love others as we love ourselves, even to love our enemies and do good to them. So, in light of this radical way of re-thinking everything, we find ourselves realizing that loving people means not owning them as property, and loving one another means not condemning people for their brokenness, and faithfulness to our spouse means not bringing anyone else into the relationship, etc.
There was a time when society owned other people and treated them as property. Christians in the South could even quote New Testament scriptures to justify owning slaves. But, as the church began to draw nearer to the spirit of Jesus, they realized that everyone is created in God’s image and no one should be bought or sold. The spirit of Christ transformed the letter of the Law to reveal the heart of the Father.
There was a time when polygamy was the norm. No one thought it was weird or wrong. Even the Bible had nothing bad to say about it. But over time, as we began to see things through the eyes of Jesus, we realized that marriage was meant to reflect the relationship between Christ and the Church, and we abandoned those old practices and embraced monogamy.
[SIDEBAR: I'm not even talking here about everything in the Old Covenant scriptures that have all been fulfilled in Christ and have no authority for those under the New Covenant; like offering animal sacrifices, observing the Sabbath, shunning women in their period, stoning homosexuals, etc.]
So, does this mean that Christians can start ignoring parts of the written Word they don't like? No, that's not what I'm saying. The pattern I'm pointing to involves drawing nearer and nearer to Jesus and allowing Him to guide us into all Truth by His Spirit. As we experience an increase of light from the indwelling Spirit of Christ, we find ourselves being led away from rules and laws ["don't handle, don't taste, don't touch"] and closer to the heart of who Jesus is - and who He is calling us to be.
My point is that Jesus is the Truth. He is the Way. He is the living "Word of God" which was made flesh and has come to dwell among - and within - us.
Finding Truth involves more than just pointing to a verse in a book and proclaiming, “The Bible says…”.
If we have the living Word of God inside of us, we can discern whether or not slavery, or polygamy, or short hair on women, etc. is "an abomination" or not. We are not bound by words on a page, we are set free by The Word in our heart.
Everything we believe must be processed through the person of Jesus. If it does not align with who He is, then it is in direct opposition to the "Word of God" and must be conformed to His image.
-kg
3 comments:
So true. The written word was inspired by God yet written by men. Jesus is the living, inerrant Word of God (John 1:1). His Spirit lives within us, we have the mind of Christ, the Kingdom of God is within us. The Spirit will teach us and guide us into the truth. The written word is good for teaching, learning, reproof yet can be manipulated by doctrine and denominational interpretation. Meaning of words, customs and translations can change, but the Living Word within us never changes.
Much of those contentious verses come from Paul. Paul even admits at one point that it is him speaking not the Lord. I believe they are there so we can learn that no human is perfect not even the great disciple Paul inspired by the spirit. We are all prone to insert our own human preferences and those of the society we live in that we in our humanness happen to agree with.
Very wonderfully put and those two comments are excellent.
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