I’ll probably come back and expand on this thought later, but for now I want to throw it out and see how it lands.
We are are so concerned with being biblical that we are not free to follow Jesus.
Too Biblical?
October 28, 2005 by 10 Comments
Training For Something Greater
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
That’s why we design our curriculum the way we do. We don’t teach kids the Bible. We teach them to be like Jesus. We use the Bible to do that.
Very interesting. Over at my blog, I’ve been trying to argue that we should help out others, but I’ve been told that isn’t what Jesus would do because of my advocated methods. I’m not sure I’m right, but the overall argument is that we can’t help others because it isn’t Biblical.
Also, doesn’t this touch on the Intelligent Design argument going on? Many Christians feel the need to promote Intelligent Design because it is “Biblical” that God created us with purpose and design. Yet, the entire argument is a red herring to the Gospel and certainly gets in the way of non-believers investigating Jesus.
Could it be that our definition of ‘biblical’ is messed up? It seems to me that Jesus was absolutely a man of the Tanakh. If trying to be biblical keeps us from following Jesus then something is wrong with our definition.
I’ve had a similar thought in my head lately. “Don’t sin in your righteousness.” I think they’re similar.
I think the point is how we define success. If success is defined as “being biblical” then we will always fall short. If we define success by asking ourselves, “Am I becoming more like Jesus or less like Jesus?” then — while we will still fall short — we are on the right track.
“You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these (very scriptures) testify about Me!” – Jesus. (Jn.5:39)
He himself said He wasn’t here to throw out the words, but the words were not life – He is. The words are empowered by Him, and He uses them to enlighten, inspire, convict and transform us, but He is the Word and the power behind the words. Sometimes in even in our most sincere attempts to “define” the words (where we often find our conflicts with each other), we forget to invite Him in to define Himself. Maybe it requires more humility than we feel comfortable with. Just a thought.
Sorry – “afterthought -post”. – I have struggled with similar thoughts and responses to His Words in my own journey of being ‘biblical’ vs. being a Christ-follower, but didn’t want to bog down your blog. If you’re interested, can see some other passages that sparked my thoughts about this same idea on my blog under “The simple meaning of life” post.
I like the lower case “b”…explains how we can take the Word (yep, that the upper case “W”) out of context to fit our needs rather than Christ’s requirements.
In our churches (lower case “c”), we focus on the needs of the institution rather than the call of the Crucified One. My personal example is this morning, during 50 Days of Love in Action, we were admonished to be mobilized for the upcoming relocation of the church to a new site…not for the role Christ has for us in the Kingdom. All about the insititution and not the “M”ission He sent us on…
Therein lies how we get “b”iblical instead of “O”bedient.
Amen to all. Wish I had something to add to this one.
Amen brother!