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Thursday, June 26, 2014

Love In Context

This is the message given at the WOW! (Worship on Wednesday) service in Gettysburg June 25, 2014.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 3:10--4:5.


            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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