In this summer sermon series, we’ve
been looking at “Three-sixteens”, Chapter three, verse sixteen in various books
of the New Testament. That was inspired, of course, by John Three,
Sixteen, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not parish but shall have everlasting life.” Tonight,
we look at Second Timothy Three, Sixteen: “All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in
righteousness.”
That’s a pretty important verse.
It tells us that the words of the Bible come from God. It tells us
that therefore the Bible is our ultimate authority for understanding God’s
word.
And I suspect that probably all of
us here would agree with that. We’d all agree that the Bible comes from
God, that it contains God’s message to us, and that it’s our ultimate authority
for knowing God’s will.
But the question is, what exactly do
we mean by that? Does it mean that we have to take everything in the
Bible literally? Does it mean, for example, that we have to believe in a
literal six days of creation, no matter what science tells us? Does it
mean that we have to take all the Old Testament laws literally? I mean,
Exodus says we should take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Leviticus says a blasphemer is to be taken out and stoned. It says
a disobedient child is to be taken out and stoned, too. And what about
all those laws about sacrificing animals and stuff? And all those laws
about foods we can eat and we cannot eat. If, as Paul says, all scripture
is God-breathed, are we messing up and ignoring the word of God by not doing
all that?
Well, apparently we don’t think so.
I mean, if we did, we’d be doing all those things, and we’re not.
So we must think it’s okay to ignore some of those things in the Old
Testament and still believe that the Bible is God’s word to us.
But the question is, why do we think
that? Why do we think it’s okay to ignore some parts of the Bible and not
other parts? I mean, there’s got to be a reason, and the reason has to be
more than just that we don’t like those parts.
You know, Jesus said a bunch of stuff that we don’t always like,
either. Jesus said that we’re supposed to love our enemies. Jesus
said if someone hits us on the right cheek, we’re supposed to offer the left.
Jesus said if someone asks for our coat, we’re supposed to give them our
shirt, too. There’s all kinds of stuff Jesus said that we don’t like but
we don’t feel free to ignore. We don’t always do the stuff Jesus said,
but we agree we’re supposed to. We don’t just say that stuff does not
apply any more.
Besides, if we’re free to ignore certain parts of the Bible just
because we don’t like them, then we don’t have a Bible at all. After all,
the parts of the Bible I like may not be the same parts you like, and the parts
I don’t like may not be the same parts you don’t like. If we can ignore
parts just because we don’t like them, then I have the gospel according to me
and you have the gospel according to you. And the Bible has no authority
whatsoever any more.
So what is our basis for saying we don’t have to follow certain
parts of the Bible? Well, I think we have to look at a couple of things.
For one thing, we need to remember the reason we have the Bible in
the first place. As we said a few weeks ago about the story of Noah, the
Bible was not written to teach us about science or history or geography or
anything like that. The Bible was written to teach us about God, about
ourselves, and about our relationship with God. The Bible was written to
teach us about the importance of faith in God. When we read the Bible, we
need to remember that and interpret it with that in mind.
Also, while we say that the Bible contains timeless truths, and I
believe that it does, we need to remember that it was also written at a
specific time for a specific audience. God’s truth does not change, but
God is smart enough to present God’s truth in ways that make it possible for
the people God is talking to to understand it.
The early chapters of Genesis, for example, were first heard by
people who believed the earth is flat. Trying to explain to them about
planets and stars and galaxies would’ve made no sense to them. It would
be like trying to explain calculus to a two-year-old. Calculus makes
sense--or so they tell me--but it would not make sense to a two-year-old,
because a two-year-old’s mind is not developed enough to understand it.
Parents explain things to their children in ways that their children can
understand. And God explained things in Genesis, and in all of the Bible,
in ways that the people of that time could understand.
So, we need to understand that society has advanced in some ways
since the Bible was written. For example, when God said “an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth”, that was actually a more humane legal system than
what people had at that time. The standard back then was a life for an
eye and a life for a tooth. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
sounds barbaric to us, but it was actually an advancement for people of that
time.
Now all that may be true and helpful, but it still does not
provide a standard for us to decide how we know what parts of the Bible we
don’t have to follow any more. But another thing that may help is to know
that this is not a new problem. It was a problem in Jesus’ time, too.
After all, Jesus did not always follow all the Jewish laws,
either. And Jesus got into trouble for it. But Jesus provided what
I think is the standard for all of this. And some of you may know where
I’m going with this. It’s a place we’ve been before. Jesus said
that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love other people.
And remember, these are not two separate things. Jesus said
the first commandment is to love God, but then he said the second, to love
other people, is just like the first. We cannot love God without loving
the people God created. All of them. And when we show love to other
people, we are showing love to God. These two things cannot be separated.
They must always come together.
The reason for those Old Testament laws in the first place was to
show love for God and for other people. But what happened is that they
became rituals. People did them because they thought they were supposed
to, with no love in their hearts. And then they used those laws to
criticize and oppress other people, the opposite of loving them.
Love God and love our neighbor. The two greatest
commandments. Jesus said it was on these two commandments that the entire
law hangs. Jesus said that the ultimate law, the one on which all other
laws depend, is the law of love.
So where does that leave us in terms of tonight’s “three-sixteen”?
After all, the Apostle Paul, writing to his young friend Timothy, said
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting, and training in righteousness.” He did not say just some of
it is God-breathed. He did not say just some of it is useful. He
said all of it is. How do we square that with what we’ve just been
saying? For that matter, how do we square it with the way we live our
lives, which is to ignore a lot of the stuff in the Bible.
Well, I still think Paul’s statement is true. I still think
all scripture is God-breathed. I believe the entire Bible comes from God
and contains truth from God. But it order to understand the truth of
scripture, we need to read it in context. We need to read it in the
context of the time it was written, we need to read it in the context of the
people for whom it was originally written, and we need to read it in the
context of the rest of the Bible. That’s the only way we can get to the
true meaning of God’s word as contained in the Bible.
Jesus said the ultimate law is the law of love. If we keep
that in mind, we’ll be able to understand the truth contained in God’s word.
And if we live with that in mind, we’ll be able to live as God’s people
in God’s world.
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