I sometimes almost finding myself feeling apologetic because that is what I want to know.
What does God actually say in his book?
No offense, but as much as I may like or even love you, your opinion is not what I am after, as neither is mine. Because the words that make up our opinions don’t last forever, they don’t penetrate the deepest parts of our lives, personally, socially …
God’s words shaped into our opinions are no longer God’s words. We have removed the “pizzaz,” the forever factor, the sharpness and the power of the words. We have made them much more manageable. And the words now do fit our lifestyles that much better, may even encourage us or make us more moral.
But they can’t do what God intended because we have brought them down to earth. We have made his ways and thoughts our ways and thoughts, and we can’t do that without really dirtying up the place with mere human thinking. It is really like trying to save ourselves although we would never admit something so awful, as good Christian people and all.
And, also, when I probe my question, I’m not talking about the “we really study the Bible” clan. No, I’m not speaking of stroking my pride with the abstractions of God’s word, and the depths we often go to in what we call word studies, cultural/historical background, etc.
That’s not what I mean. I will say that those are good places to hide from the will of God; places that are very conducive to doing what we want to do and rationalizing that God is pleased with our defiance.
What we don’t realize that sometimes “those other people” are us. We are the “religious” ones, the ones insincere in our faith, the ones with a semblance of godliness but lacking the power and presence of God. But that couldn’t be us; look at how we “study the Word.” Did you notice how I capitalized Word? That’s how I show reverence. Smirk. Thought I would add that so you wouldn’t miss the sarcasm. I mean I could show my reverence by bowing before the words in acceptance and obedience, but that is much harder, so much more demanding than playing the word game.
In Mark 10 we run into a young man who played the numbers game, a young man who had an impressive check list of why he was in good standing before God, or at least hoped to be. So he took a risk and came to Jesus for his thoughts.
And that is what we always need to do; come to Jesus for his thoughts on our whack-a-doodle ideas we drag kicking and screaming from the Bible.
On the “I am a good person so I hope I am going to heaven” quiz, he got six out of seven. Check, check, check, check, check, check … oops! But the one he missed was the crucial answer. He was able to answer the first six questions and still not confront God’s will for his life, but when it came time to confront his submission to the Lord of the universe, he went away in great sadness.
He couldn’t give up the life he had chosen for the life Jesus directed him to.
- Mark 10:17-22 (NIV)
- 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
- 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'”
- 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
- 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
- 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
- Do not murder √
- do not commit adultery √
- do not steal √
- do not give false testimony √
- do not defraud √
- honor your father and mother √
Whoo-hoo! Doing good on the “Jesus” test until …
Until the challenge came to his life direction with these words: “One thing you lack.” Go sell everything, give it to the poor and follow me.
Six out of seven on a quiz is normally pretty good, but not in this case when the young man’s religion and morality were keeping him from God rather than drawing him to God. He was using his religious determination to rationalize his autonomy, keeping control of his life. And because of that he couldn’t follow Jesus.
Note the irony. Familiar with the Scriptures, successful in obeying his hand-picked rules of morality but could not bring himself to follow Jesus, God in the flesh, literally standing there in front of him, urging him to do the right thing before God.
So my initial question grows. What does God say? And now what does God say to me? That is what I want to hear.
