Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice (Proverbs 13:10)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17)
I don’t think I’m good at taking advice. I’m probably lots better at creating strife. But I suspect that a big part of why I create strive is because I’ve taken advice in the past. I am undoubtedly prouder than I should be, but I suspect I’m not as proud as some think I am. Some folks seem to think that I’ve made up my mind to have this or that opinion, and in a way, I have. I made up my mind years ago that I was going to believe that what the Bible said is what God said for it to way. As I have tried to live according to its principles, I have come to understand that they are good principles. I’m nowhere near perfect in my obedience, but that doesn’t mean the principles are evil. It means I am.
That makes life really easy for those who think I’m causing strife. Show me where the Bible tells us to have a different perspective on a subject than I have – and make sure you’re defining your terms correctly – and I have no argument. I know some people will immediately proclaim that we are to love everyone. I agree. We’re to love our enemies, and I wish they would. But what does “love” mean? Does it mean to say nothing when they are doing something harmful to themselves or to others? Does it mean to celebrate their doing something Scripture says is wrong? Does it mean joining them in doing these things? Participating in some way? What does it mean to love our enemies?
Some folks say that the Bible means what we understand it to mean so love means whatever we understand love to mean. Suppose you were to say to me, “The Bible says we’re to love one another.” Suppose that I then said to you, and to a group of people standing nearby, that you’ve just told me that we’re to fly planes into buildings. Would you agree that what you said and what I said have the same meaning? Would you agree that what I said was an appropriate understanding of what you said? If I convinced some folks to carry out that plan (after all, I can’t pilot a plane and I have to be around to continue the conversation with you) would you say that they had behaved in a loving way? Of course not. And neither would I except as a hypothetical example. Neither would we praise a doctor who, in order to perform surgery on the toe, cut the throat. We would wisely not accept the idea that t.o.e. means that area between the chin and the collarbones. For that matter, if we were reading the Illiad, few would propose that when he mentions an eagle, he’s actually talking about a seven-forty-seven or an orca. I don’t think any of us would suggest that Hitler was tenderly compassionate to the Jews or Gypsies in World War II. Why is it, then, that we have this notion that anything means anything we want it to when it comes to the Bible?
How is it that I’m the cause of strife when I repeat what the Bible says, but the person who says that it means whatever they want it to mean is not causing strife? Where is the pride – in the person who agrees with Scripture, or the person who says that Scripture means what they say it means?
I don’t think I’m good at taking advice. I’m probably lots better at creating strife. But I suspect that a big part of why I create strive is because I’ve taken advice in the past. I am undoubtedly prouder than I should be, but I suspect I’m not as proud as some think I am. Some folks seem to think that I’ve made up my mind to have this or that opinion, and in a way, I have. I made up my mind years ago that I was going to believe that what the Bible said is what God said for it to way. As I have tried to live according to its principles, I have come to understand that they are good principles. I’m nowhere near perfect in my obedience, but that doesn’t mean the principles are evil. It means I am.
That makes life really easy for those who think I’m causing strife. Show me where the Bible tells us to have a different perspective on a subject than I have – and make sure you’re defining your terms correctly – and I have no argument. I know some people will immediately proclaim that we are to love everyone. I agree. We’re to love our enemies, and I wish they would. But what does “love” mean? Does it mean to say nothing when they are doing something harmful to themselves or to others? Does it mean to celebrate their doing something Scripture says is wrong? Does it mean joining them in doing these things? Participating in some way? What does it mean to love our enemies?
Some folks say that the Bible means what we understand it to mean so love means whatever we understand love to mean. Suppose you were to say to me, “The Bible says we’re to love one another.” Suppose that I then said to you, and to a group of people standing nearby, that you’ve just told me that we’re to fly planes into buildings. Would you agree that what you said and what I said have the same meaning? Would you agree that what I said was an appropriate understanding of what you said? If I convinced some folks to carry out that plan (after all, I can’t pilot a plane and I have to be around to continue the conversation with you) would you say that they had behaved in a loving way? Of course not. And neither would I except as a hypothetical example. Neither would we praise a doctor who, in order to perform surgery on the toe, cut the throat. We would wisely not accept the idea that t.o.e. means that area between the chin and the collarbones. For that matter, if we were reading the Illiad, few would propose that when he mentions an eagle, he’s actually talking about a seven-forty-seven or an orca. I don’t think any of us would suggest that Hitler was tenderly compassionate to the Jews or Gypsies in World War II. Why is it, then, that we have this notion that anything means anything we want it to when it comes to the Bible?
How is it that I’m the cause of strife when I repeat what the Bible says, but the person who says that it means whatever they want it to mean is not causing strife? Where is the pride – in the person who agrees with Scripture, or the person who says that Scripture means what they say it means?
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