In America, people often throw out Christian “buzz phrases”, particularly in regards to the bible.
- Our church is a bible church
- We believe in truth
- The bible is the ultimate source of God’s truth
- The bible is the only way we know God
- etc
To me, the perception is if we just had more bible we’d be good. Or I read my bible a lot, so I’m good.
If we just had more bible, then our problems would be solved. Or so my perception of the generalization goes.
I think we forget the environment that Jesus taught in.
He came to Israel, God’s chosen people, the people that had the holy scriptures, I believe most rabbis would memorize the entire scriptures.
Their society was peak scripture. Yet Jesus condemned it. And they ultimately crucified Jesus, proclaiming “we have no king but Caesar!”
Is the Bible Enough
If you take a quick look through history, what would you see?
You’ll see that men have always found a way to use the bible for explotation and control.
Too often, the Bible becomes another tool to justify what I was already going to do.
Instead of cleaning out the entire bowl, I can just quote a bible verse and I’m good to go.
The bible is a book, and has no voice of it’s own. It only echoes Kingdom ideals when the reader gives it time and space to accomplish it.
The Means of Man
The means of man - power, control, manipulation, anger, fear, these are the tools we gravitate towards.
We see this play out in our politics, our churches, our “Christian” media.
Bible reading and believing individuals who are wholly devoted to the means of man.
Kingdom Ideals
But the bible offers an alternative.
It condemns the means of man. The Kingdom of Jesus will never come about by the means of man. It was ushered in by Jesus' ultimate sacrifice. One he cals us to imulate.
But it’s not natural, it takes conscious effort and real devotion to get to that point.
And that’s the disciples call. But aside the worldly values and take up Kingdom values. We might “lose” here on earth, but will gain a heavenly reward.