- Galatians 3:3 (NIV84)
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Too often as Christians we believe that if we think it then it must “be the gospel.” We exempt ourselves – because of our background, experiences, professions of belief and service – from the perils of our fallen nature and our skewed reasoning.
We even sometimes (often? … ouch!) skew the words in Jesus’ name.
We “cogito ergo” since I thought it, since its my opinion, then it must be correct. If friends, family and the folks at church agree, then that seals it.
However in our love for God and his word we need to overcome our fallen nature and skewed reasoning as we approach the words of God.
Here’s how …
Honoring God in our Bible study and living means we must account for the very real effect the fall of humankind has had on our reasoning abilities. Yes, even you, Christian, if you are not approaching the holy words in the Spirit and in humility, will fall to the familiar place of mere men in your pursuit of God and his truth.
Following is an excerpt from my book – Living by the Words of God!
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A biblical approach to Scripture that promotes and cultivates a life of faith is our “how” as to overcoming the effect our fallen nature has had on our reasoning abilities.
3.3d.1 We are to live by faith.
- For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5.7).
Living by the words of God, we learn to trust in the words God has given us. To live by faith means to step into the unknown as God directs. Uncertainty is part of life. By faith we live in the certainty of God and his words, but that certainty does not mean we see the road ahead, it merely means that we know God wants us on that road. We live the words and trust God for the rest.
3.3d.2 We are not to live by sight.
Opposites – faith and sight. If we live by sight we will fear the unknown and immobilize ourselves. Sight demands knowing what will happen if I do this or that. Faith trusts the words of God and the character of God. Faith breeds courage; sight breeds fear.
If we do not maintain a faith approach to Scripture, then we will fall prey to our natural, fallen reasoning abilities. We may deceive ourselves into thinking the approach is spiritual, and in fact can be quite religious, but the choices are faith or sight.
3.3d.3 We are to avoid a fearful, sight-based approach to the words of God; a reactive/protective approach.
I will give an example from my pastoral experience that demonstrates a fearful approach to Scripture as a result of walking by sight rather than faith.
I remember preaching from 1 Peter 4.8 and having an experienced “Bible teacher” very upset over my “loose” teaching that “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
- And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NKJV).
What was the problem?
What did I say that stirred the emotions so? This is a very clear teaching and that person was very sincere and committed in his walk with God and belief in the Bible. Why was he so vehement in his disapproval? Why was he so angry with me?
Here is why? Cognitive dissonance.
He perceived something coming in on the radar that disrupted his cognitive- consistency, and he took a reactive/protective stance. It’s like shooting a missile down before it can enter your airspace. The person who struggles with this (which includes all of us to some degree) is so protective of his belief system and so wary of what a teaching potentially leads to (slippery- slope syndrome) that he sometimes/often struggles to see and accept what a passage says and to trust God with the resulting truth and direction.
This reactive/protective stance taints our ability to reason, skews the view, obscures the lens we see life and Scripture through. More simply put – We jump to conclusions, conclusions that, despite our declarations to the contrary, are not biblical. This person moves very quickly to interpretation and application before really observing the text and what it actually says. It is not an exaggeration to say that this person often begins with interpretation and application at the expense of observation. Unfortunately this does not stop him or her from still declaring this to be God’s truth as he or she attaches several biblical references to substantiate the claim.
Biblically “wrapped” or biblically true?
In Part Two – Lesson 7 we will look at the difference between a message being biblically “wrapped” and biblically true. Briefly, a biblically wrapped message sounds true, usually preached to a group of like-minded people who will accept its veracity because they agree with it and several Bible passages were referred to and/or read. This type message seems to be especially powerful if many references are turned to in support of the main idea.
The problem is that referencing a large number of passages usually only enables a surface examination but gives the appearance of really probing the depths of Scripture. Like a rock skipping fifteen times over the surface of a pond, we cover a lot of area but have no depth.
This is not to say that if several verses of Scripture are used that the message is not biblical, but as I listen to preachers this is generally the norm. If several verses are used, usually a good examination of what the verses actually say does not occur .
Contrasted with a biblically “wrapped” message is a biblically true message. The preacher or teacher stays with the announced text and actually probes what the words of that text say. Staying with the text and allowing God to speak his intended communication through that text allows him to penetrate our layers of defenses and speak to our hearts, which is the purpose of Scripture, to deal with our hearts.
Way back to my example. Remember we were in 1 Pet 4.8 “love will cover a multitude of sins”? In this text two observations stood out as I studied it. One, fervent love is given priority above everything else. And, two, love will cover a multitude of sins.
- And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NKJV).
How could someone disagree with such plain teaching? His approach to Scripture cultivated an attitude of fear not faith.
In this situation, the man feared that people would misuse this passage to justify their sinful lifestyle. So here it seems he jumped promptly to application in an attempt to shut down a “dangerous” teaching (in his eyes), even though this teaching was clearly the word of God.
Lack of Faith / Presence of Fear
Underlying this attitude would seem to be a lack of faith both in God and in his word. After all, we have to remember who wrote the Book. Since God included those words, then I taught them. We teach the word of God and trust God with the outcome. We have too many truths of Scripture that have been neutered in the process of becoming Sunday School stories. Look at the lives of David, Abraham … And by the way how did Esther actually become queen? Our fear of where a truth might lead us stifles the word of God. So our fear and lack of faith causes us to change the message.
The attitude is …
- IF …………………….. We teach this,
- THEN ……………….. They may do that,
- THEREFORE …….. We will not teach that truth.
The result is that we effectively block out portions of Scripture that those in leadership fear “the people” cannot handle. Even though God included those words in his holy book for “the people.” And then, we reward this attitude and give it “spiritual maturity” status under the category of guarding the flock. Help me, Wanda!
And they often call this “defending the faith …”
Usually people with this mind-set not only do not teach these passages but they attack anyone who does in the interest of defending the faith.
Go figure.
Excerpt from Living by the Words of God, pp. 65-68. (© 2004 by David Lee Scott. All rights reserved.)
