Response as the Goal of All Bible Reading

I love purpose statements. I love them because I really don’t like guessing about someone’s motivation. It’s an uncomfortable place to be in. If I’m reading something someone wrote or listing to someone give a talk, I don’t want to be left wondering why they wrote what they wrote or said the things they said. I think this is partly why I like John’s gospel so much.

As the apostle John was drawing his gospel to a close, he thought it would be a good idea to make clear why he wrote it in the first place—to remove the mystery, if there was any. To do that he wrote that, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31, NIV). With that statement, you and I don’t have to wonder or guess about his purpose. John wrote what he wrote so that you and I might believe in Jesus (or continue to believe—there’s some debate about that, but we don’t need to get into it here) and, through believing in Jesus, experience real life.

In other words, what John did with his gospel is to give an opportunity for everyone who reads it to respond to what he wrote. I think that although John is probably the clearest of his fellow biblical authors about his purpose, his purpose is not unique to him. I would guess that if we were able to ask any of the biblical authors why they wrote what they wrote, their answer would be that those who read what they wrote would respond in one way or another to what they’ve read. It’s the same purpose I have in writing what I’m writing here. I want you to respond to it; I don’t want it to be wasted time.

Throughout the church world the language that is often used in relation to what I’m talking about here is application. Most books on Bible reading or Bible study guides will talk about applying the text to our lives in order for it to have any meaning. And I think they’re partly right. If all we ever read the Bible for is to gain knowledge then we’re missing the point, because knowledge alone puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1, NIV). However, I think talking about application for all biblical texts sets us up for confusion and frustration, because not all biblical texts are equally applicable to us. To be sure, there are plenty that apply directly to us, but there are some—quite a few, actually—that are impossible for us to be able to directly apply to our lives.

Consider this passage from Leviticus 4 as an example of a text that is impossible for us to apply to our lives today: “If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt and the sin they committed becomes known, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the tent of meeting. The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the Lord, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord. Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood into the tent of meeting. He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the Lord seven times in front of the curtain. He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar, and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the community, and they will be forgiven. Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community.” (Leviticus 4:13-21, NIV)

Right off the bat, it’s clear that this section of Scripture was written to a particular people during a particular time. That people and that time being the whole ancient Israelite community following their exodus from Egypt. You and I aren’t those people and we are not in that time. So if application was our goal in reading this passage, how would anyone today be able to apply it? The short answer is, no one today could appropriately apply it, so why would we ever make application the main goal of reading all the time? This is why I have found it helpful to talk about responding, instead. I think there are plenty of places throughout the Bible where direct application is right and necessary, but the direct application is a fruit of a proper response; application doesn’t arrive on its own.

Even though we are not able to directly apply Leviticus 4:13-21, we are fully capable of responding to it. Our response to that text might be something like, recognizing what God was doing with the ancient Israelite community in how he was being up front about unintentional sin, giving them clear instructions for how to deal with unintentional sin, and how what Jesus did on the world’s behalf in relation to sin somehow relates to what Moses was talking about way back then. I think that’s an appropriate response to Leviticus 4 even though application was never a possibility. And yet there was still a purpose for us with that portion of Scripture—we can still benefit from reading and responding to a section of the Bible that has no direct application to us.

This idea of not being able to apply a text, but still being able to respond to it is not unique to the Old Testament. In fact, we run into the same situation with one of the most famous sentences in all the Bible from the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, NIV). Here we have John reaching back as far as he can into the past and telling his readers what it was like back then. In particular, telling his readers about the Word and his relation to God. How would you apply this text to your life? Is there something you and I are being called to do from this text? I don’t think there’s any direct application for us. There’s nothing in the text for us to do, but that doesn’t mean the text has no purpose for us, because we are still able to respond to it. Our response, though is not by way of application but by way of stirring our imagination in wrestling with the reality of who God was and is. John 1:1 serves us today by giving us something solid to grab hold of, something true about who God was and is, and it’s okay that the text isn’t directly calling us to do anything.

Of course, though, there are plenty of places in Scripture where our response will be made evident by the way we apply the text to our lives. Think of Galatians 5 and Paul’s description of what life in the Spirit is like: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:13-15, NIV) We would be fooling ourselves if we thought there was no direct application for us today from this passage. This is not like what we saw in John 1 or Leviticus 4. This text applies directly to us if we respond to it appropriately. Our response ought to be one of first reflection of our own lives, which includes a comparison to what Paul described, then adjustments in our lives where they’re appropriate. Paul is giving us instruction for life and if all we ever saw it for was simply something to consider as true without any direct application then we would missing out on his intention.

This way of reading the Bible takes effort on our part—serious effort. The Bible is not some cryptic force that can make you do what it wants you to do. In fact, it has no influence over you if you choose not to give it any. This is the surprising thing about God choosing to communicate his intention and will with his people through the writing of the Bible. He knew that words on a page are easy to ignore (the experience with the Mosaic law made that clear), and yet he chose to go this way with it—and for good reason.

Because God gave us a book that requires us to read, understand, and respond to it, it is up to us to decide if we are going to be shaped by God’s words to us. It is up to us if we’re going to take him seriously or not. And this is good. This reveals to us something true about ourselves. So it’s up to you and it’s up to me to decide—on a regular basis—if we are going to take the necessary steps to not only read, then work to understand what we’ve read, but also to respond to what we’ve read and understood. This is the life of a Bible-reader.

A Church Called Love (Part 3) Love Reigns Supreme

what we have so far

We’ve looked at two ideas so far in our walk through 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13. The first that it doesn’t matter what we do (speaking in different languages (human and/or angelic), prophesying, understanding all there is to know, or giving all we have to the poor), if we do not have love it’s nothing and our “service” is nothing. The second idea was that love is fundamentally and foundationally others-focused. We are called to love God and love our neighbors (Mk. 2:30-31).

Now we come to the end of this short section of 1 Corinthians and find that Paul is circling back to one of the main themes that started this entire discussion: love reigns supreme.

Is this loving?

What would you consider to be the guiding principle of your life? Before you say or do anything is there something, some sort of filter, you automatically process any and all situations through? If you were talking to Paul about this, I think he would say that the filter for everything you and I say or do ought to be love. Paul would hope we’d be consistently asking ourselves: Is this loving? But why is this the case? He tells us.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:8-13, ESV)

not everything all-important, some things come to an end

I like to chew gum. It’s important for me to have some gum ready to go at all times (even while playing the drums). I also like to breathe. And, it’s also important for me to be able to breathe at all times. So, if I had to choose, would I pick chewing gum or breathing?

You know the answer.

You know the answer because you know that even though a lot of things can be really important, not everything is all-important. This is clear in the way Paul sets up his argument from verses 8 to 13.

Paul begins with a statement I’ve far to easily breezed over in the past: Love never ends. For you Greek lovers (like me) out there, Paul said that love never katargeō. It could be translated as never dies or never comes to an end. To put it positively, love lasts forever—it’s eternal.

There are things that will come to an end, though, and Paul gives us three: prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. These won’t last forever—they’re not eternal. Aside from tongues, which Paul says will cease, he uses the same Greek word as he did for the never ending nature of love. Prophecies and tongues will katargeō—they will come to an end.

Why, though? Why is it that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will stop? Why will they not go on forever into the new heavens and new earth?

the partial must give way to the complete

Paul anticipates this question (as he often does throughout his letters) and explains why some things will end in three different, but related ways.

1. Some things will end because they are not complete, and what is not complete will not last.

2. Some things will end because, just as adults need to let go of childish things as they mature, some things need to be left behind for better things.

3. Some things will end because what we see now isn’t as clear as it will be one day.

We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. There is coming a day in which all that is left to be completed will be completed. This is (in my understanding) the second coming of the Son of God and the restoration of all things. This is the day in which the Lord will return to rule here on earth as he has been ruling from his throne, but in a more perfect sense. One of the big differences between now and then will be that this rule will take place on a new earth as it is joined with a new heaven (i.e., realm of God). This new home will be one without corruption; this new home will be perfect—it will be complete. And, so, what isn’t perfect will come to an end.

The point must be made, however, that this is not the same thing as saying that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are not worth valuing or pursuing today. They most definitely are as Paul makes clear elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. Prophecies are real today. Tongues are real today. Knowledge is real today. They are are useful, but none of them are complete; they are partial. This situation is not dissimilar to the way in which the Old Covenant gave way to the New. The Old was not made obsolete (as the writer to the Hebrews said) because there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, it was holy. It was made obsolete because something better came along (the incarnate Christ and the New Covenant).

Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are important, but they are not all-important and so they must give way to what is.

faith, hope, and love remain

How then shall we live?

And, of course, Paul helps us here as he writes: “And now remain: faith, hope, love--these three. But love reigns supreme.” (1 Cor. 13:13) In comparison to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge that will not last forever, faith, hope, and love—these three, together—will go on forever. At the completion of all things our faith, hope, and love that we have now will expand and continue forever. Any trust you have in God today will expand when forever gets here. Any hope you have in God will grow when forever gets here. And any love you have for God will increase when forever gets here.

So, then, why not live like that’s actually true today? Why not practice now what we will be doing forever?

Those are the questions for us. You may want to prophecy—God bless. You may want to speak in tongues—God bless. You may want to know all there is to know—God bless. But let’s not pursue those wonderful and good gifts at the expense of those that will last forever: faith, hope, and the greatest—love.

Why is love the greatest?

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV)

Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14, ESV)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6, ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12, ESV)

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16, ESV)

Do you see the persistent theme throughout these portions of the Bible? Love reigns supreme.

Whether it be the truth that the entire Old Covenant law is dependent and fulfilled in love. Or whether it be that in everything Paul insists we do it in love. Or whether it be that neither circumcision or uncircumcision is greater than love. Or whether it be that God’s love for us is perfected in us as we love. Or whether it be that God is love and if we make our home in love we live in God and God in us.

In all of these, love is the greatest.

This will be the major reality of the new heavens and new earth. The eventual home of God on this planet with his people like it has never been before.

It will be a world ruled by love, through the one who is love, with those who live in love.

A Moment on the Scriptures: The Theology of Christmas (4)

Depending on your Christian perspective and background, it’s sometimes easier to think of Jesus being God than it is to think of him being an actual person.

This is another area where the ancient ecumenical creeds, and especially the Athanasian Creed, can be extremely beneficial to us. In our walk through a small section of the Athanasian Creed, we’ve come to this statement: and he is man from the essence of his mother, born in time;

As you might remember, we just talked through the idea that Jesus is God from the essence of the Father and that he has been coming (or proceeding) from the Father for all eternity past.

To put it into slightly other words, there was not a moment in all of eternity past when the Son was not coming from the Father. I believe that to be true. I also believe it to be true that there was a moment in time when the Son of God became the Son of Mary. Paul puts it like this: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4a, NIV).

The Son of God has been God forever. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. But the Son of God has not always been a human being. There was a moment when he was not a human and then, in the next moment at his conception, he was a human. This, unlike his pre-incarnate existence, which had been occurring prior to any human existence, occurred within the time of human existence.

Along the same lines, the Son of God—in time—is from the essence of his mother—Mary. What makes him a human being? Something about his connection to, and coming from, his mother. The Son of God is a human being because he has taken upon himself humanity. And, in the good pleasure of the triune God, this has been done through the Son of God’s being born of a woman.

15 Theses on Galatians 3:26-29

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29, NIV)

1. All those in Jesus are children of God through faith.

2. Faith in Jesus in the shared characteristic of all Christians.

3. Baptism into Jesus is a death, burial, and resurrection into true life.

4. To be baptized into Jesus is to adopt the worldview of Jesus.

5. To be baptized into Jesus is to begin to be conformed to Jesus.

6. In Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

7. In Jesus racial boundaries do not exist and thus do not make you more or less united to him.

8. In Jesus there is neither slave nor free.

9. In Jesus slavery does not exist; brotherhood does.

10. In Jesus there is neither male nor female.

11. In Jesus gender boundaries do not exist and thus do not make you more or less united to him.

12. All are one in Jesus because all those who have faith in Jesus are united to him.

13. All those in Jesus are Abraham’s seed because they share the faith of Abraham.

14. All those in Jesus are the promised heirs of Abraham.

15. Without Jesus there is Jew and Gentile, there is slave and free, there is male and female, and no one is united as a whole.