BIBLICALLY INSPIRED

Living the Book with Humility

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

(John 5:39-40)

The Bible is a supernatural, mysterious, simple, complex, and beautiful message to inform and transform the lives of believers, the church, and—ultimately—culture. Christians and the church, however, have not lately been known for thoughtful handling of God's word. Rather than viewing it with awe and humility, some Christians have, in their defensiveness, reduced Scripture to a personal tool belt of judgment. Instead of grace, they have shown a penchant for using the Bible for their own purposes—quoting verses out of context, extracting Scripture to support a position on a given topic, or hijacking biblical texts to judge others' behavior. This tendency has led to a sad unraveling of the Bible's reputation as the transformative word of God. No wonder non-Christians feel attacked and embittered. No wonder churches have difficulty drawing people to God merely by asserting, "We are Bible based." To people outside the church, this statement now sounds like a door slamming shut in their faces.

But Jesus clearly delineated the correct application of Scripture, and his manner of handling God's word was instructive for believers in every century since. Today he confronts the church, reminding us that the body must be built on him, not on dogma—on insight and mercy, not on condemnation. He is asking us to understand that when we value tight philosophical systems over the genuine message of the gospel, we become a stumbling block that injures the church and wounds those we are sent to serve. In our culture and context, it is imperative that people of faith return to an understanding and practice of biblical truth as modeled by Jesus.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Mark 2:23-28)

The day of Sabbath was originally designated by God to benefit people by setting one day a week aside for rest, community, and joy. The teachers of the law selfishly grabbed it for their own purposes and personal benefit. Adding one Sabbath law and regulation after another, they attempted to use the Sabbath day of rest as a means to direct everyone's attention and money to their religious systems and institutions. In the end everyone was forced to serve a legalistic notion of Sabbath rather than actually experience God's Sabbath rest. Jesus, using scripture, warned the Pharisees about manipulating scripture to serve them selves. Furthermore, he clarified that Scripture points to himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, and not their legalistic institutions. God's church must realign itself with this healthy, holy, and holistic view of the Bible to honor God and once again allow people to experience his word as irresistible and life changing.

Seeing the Sacredness of Scripture

Christians believe that God is the origin of Scripture. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "all Scripture is God-breathed." Some translations of this verse use the word inspired, alluding to the Holy Spirit guiding a multitude of writers.

There is a mystery here. If you believe that the words in John 1:1 are inspired, what does it mean to your life, the life of the church, and the practice of faith? God is the word. When we approach the Bible we are approaching God—not something to be glibly done. We must view God's word on those terms and in totality, not in bits and pieces that suit our view of the world. Only by looking at Scripture in total do we approach understanding. This is a lifelong quest. The word is immense—not visible all at once. We pull back the petals one by one to find infinite layers beneath.

Christians approaching the Bible will gain insight from the art of seeing the thirty thousand-foot view of God's word. It is only from this vantage point that we see the epic nature of the Bible. We then read the Scripture in total and apply it holistically.

Stanley Grenz, a Christian thinker of the twenty-first century, reflects:

Our world is more than a collection of incompatible and competing local narratives.... We firmly believe that the local narratives of the many human communities do fit together into a single grand narrative, the story of humankind.... As Christians we claim to know what that grand narrative is. It is the story of God's action in history for the salvation of fallen humankind and the completion of God's intentions for creation. We boldly proclaim that the focus of this metanarrative is the story of Jesus.

Not Always Literal

In a congregational meeting there was a vote to convert the historic church chapel into a gymnasium for outreach purposes. One church member stood up. "I don't see any mention of gymnasiums in the Bible." Another church member promptly responded, "I don't see any mention of urinals in the Bible either, but they sure are a good idea." The vote went in favor of transforming the chapel into a gym.

Postmodern Americans are accustomed to looking at a world of mystery. They understand incongruity, difficulty, and struggle. Faith deals with all of those elements of life. What they find hard to swallow is an insistence on the literal reading of Bible passages that are clearly meant to be understood another way. Churches hoping to speak to people in the twenty-first century must acknowledge that doggedly literal interpretations of the Bible can hold people at arm's length and keep them from the richness of the text. The Bible contains hyperbole, song, metaphor, poetry, allegory, and other forms of writing that bring God's word to life.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth....
Let all the...