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Rather than exploring the original intention of the author, studying the Bible has often become a free-for-all littered with self-help philosophies and political agendas. Sermons are often watered down and sunday school classes teach kids to be obedient. Which is good...but what about the Gospel? What about the part about Jesus being God?
The problem of using the Bible without being aware of its intent is that we can easily pretend that the Bible supports whatever agenda we want to push. This is not good..even if the agenda is something good or biblically supported.
We need to be teaching people to read the text critically...and often that means asking: What does the text say about God? His character? His redemptive plan.
We pick out verses or phrases to support our own agendas, then get angry when people do the same to condemn Christians.
The Bible is a story about the utter brokenness of humanity and God's plan to restore it. Now that is something that resonates with me. Making that which is wrong right again.
Restoring myself. Restoring the earth. Restoring friends. Restoring family.
We need to be teaching people to read the text critically...and often that means asking: What does the text say about God? His character? His redemptive plan.
We pick out verses or phrases to support our own agendas, then get angry when people do the same to condemn Christians.
The Bible is a story about the utter brokenness of humanity and God's plan to restore it. Now that is something that resonates with me. Making that which is wrong right again.
Restoring myself. Restoring the earth. Restoring friends. Restoring family.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)
Amen! My favorite question to ask whenever I'm studying scripture is "Where's Jesus in this text?" Everything in the Bible points back to him.
ReplyDeleteI like that Natalie, definitely easy to grasp. Kind of reminds me to of Mark Driscoll's sermon series...Jesus was a better _____ .
DeleteI've been finding myself asking that question recently as well. We were studying the story of Joseph's Dreams in our Bible class on Sunday, and while reading the scripture, I couldn't help but think how his story relates to Jesus. He dreamt that the 11 stars bowed down to him and I thought how those 11 stars could be likened to the 11/12 tribes of Israel. Also, how his brothers sought to kill him because of his dreams and how that relates to the Pharisees wanting to kill him because he said He was the Son of God. It's funny that as I get a deeper meaning of Christ, I see so much of Him in the Old Testament stories... SO MUCH.
Deletethis is good. so often we can make our Christianity about ourselves, when really God should be the center of our life.
ReplyDeleteSo true sarah. Thanks for reading.
DeleteGreat point, Eimile!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rebecca! And thanks for checking out my blog :)
DeleteI really like this post, Eimile. I don't even know where to begin on commenting, but I guess I'll just say this: I agree with you that we need to ask "What does the text say about God? His character? His redemptive plan". However, that is so hard for us to do today. I don't think everyone tries to get some kind of self-gratification out of certain scriptures, but many scriptures are there for comfort. We are humans. We are fighting this ridiculous battle of good vs. evil daily. The Lord often directs us to certain scriptures to remind us of His unending love and that He is always there with us... At least, that's how it has been for me since I'm still struggling with hearing and recognizing His voice. In a sense, using the scriptures that way does indeed point back to God, if we allow it to. It shows His never-ending grace. Now, if when you mention that the "Bible supports whatever agenda we want to push", you are speaking on something like 'prosperity gospel' and things of that sort, then I completely agree. :-)
ReplyDeleteHI Jhan, I thought I already replied to this...but I guess not! Sorry for taking so long ;)
Delete"I don't think everyone tries to get some kind of self-gratification out of certain scriptures, but many scriptures are there for comfort."
It totally get what you are saying here and I definitely think this is true.
When I talk about "using" God's word I'm referring more to using it to support our opinons and agendas. There is so much division in the church, but we use the Bible to say that our denomination is better than another. Or we use God's word to support one political party or the other. But often, this is done by taking verses out of context...
I think that although there is a place for letting God's word inform our thoughts and decisions there is also a place where you need to draw the line in arguing and let God's word (and the holy sprit) transform our lives as we focus on the redemptive story and our place within it.
I hope that clarifies :)
Wow!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the new perspective!
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