When it comes to the Word of God, what makes your treatment of the Bible any different than the sons and daughters of Adam who do not know the Lord? The world without Christ doesn’t like having to answer to a Creator; they love their independent spirit. They have no desire in conforming or obeying a bunch of commands from a book of man that is considered archaic and irrelevant. They refuse to recognize the authority of the Word and following all those outdated rules. Well, it is simply ridiculous to them. In fact, it is an absurdity! For them, the Bible is only for those superstitious hypocritical weirdos stuck in the dark ages, yes?
When
you were of the world (without Christ), do you not relate to this in one way or
another? Paul ascribed some labels describing our former way of life we would
just as soon forget, for some examples: Col 1:21; Eph 2:1-2, 19; 4:18; Titus 3:3, et
al, yes? But it is good for us to remember what Jesus saved us from by its
inclusion in Scripture.
We
should never be surprised by what the world does; darkness does dark things,
hello (Jn 3:19; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4)! He/she doesn’t want any god (if there is such a thing
according to them) telling them what to do. The Bible as a rule of life was the
least of their concerns! While we were in the world, it was a time in our lives
when there was obviously no love for Yahweh; we were part of the realm of spiritual darkness.
Have
you ever met a Christian who practically refuses to read the Bible? I say
“refuses” because he/she makes up various reasons why he/she rarely reads the Word
of God! I am not talking about toting the Bible to church in view of others,
opening it up, and following along with the preacher or teacher.
Often,
I hear the excuse of “I cannot understand it.” Now, “refuses” may be a strong word choice with that kind of excuse being offered, but I will stick to this verb for it shows a deliberate unwillingness towards reading the Word of God, having
convinced themselves it doesn’t make any sense to them which exacerbates taking
any initiative in understanding the Scriptures. This is so unwise, so
shortsighted of understanding the consequences of ignoring the Scriptures altogether.
It is definitely a detriment to the spiritual health of anyone who does such a
thing.
It
is interesting to see others attempting to justify ignoring the Word but
expressing passions in other areas of life that are impressive, but those same
creative expressions and energies are never directed toward the Scriptures in
order to understand it. They make claim to be under the authority but are
rarely to ever in it because they have convinced themselves that they can’t
understand it, and sadly, this thinking can put a life on hold for God for
years or even the whole life! That’s problematic in and of itself!
I
personally know believers in their eighties still sucking their thumb
spiritually! It is more suitable for them to subsist on pablum from the pulpit,
whenever they go, than spending the time trying to understand the Bible. If
your source of spiritual truth is reduced to that level, it is a scary prospect
and has negative ramifications – divine chastening.
Such
verses, for instance, found in Psa 119 expressing love and a desire to know
the God of the Bible are alien actions to such a mindset. There are a lot of
themes I do not understand, but it doesn’t prevent me from reading the
Scriptures in order to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18a)!
At one time in my life, I was abysmally ignorant of God’s Word. I was without Christ, and such ignorance made perfect sense because I did not have the Holy Spirit living within me (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4). During that time, there was no desire to read the Bible or make it the rule of my life. My spiritual knowledge was limited to there is a God, and the Bible is His Word. That’s it, folks! I am thankful for that but that alone doesn’t save anyone. When I got saved, my KJV translation of the Bible might as well have been written in a foreign tongue, but I wanted to know this God who saved me, and so I have been on this spiritual journey ever since 1.19.1976: a finite guy seeking to know an infinite God!
It
has been said that Christianity is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. It is
going to take some sweat from putting forth some effort to understand the
Scriptures and then applying what you understand in your life! It is a lifetime
pursuit of the Holy One. Billy Graham was once asked if he had to do it all
over again, what would he do differently? One of the things he said was to read
the Bible more! Imagine that! I recall something else Billy said similar to
this. He was of the opinion that we could rid ourselves of 95% of all our
problems if we would only read and apply the truths of Scripture.
Not
understanding the Bible from a believer’s point of view was not foreign in the
New Testament. Even the Apostle Peter under inspiration said of Paul’s
writings,
…as also our beloved
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also
in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, which are some things hard
to understand…. (2 Pet 3:15b-16a, emphasis mine).
False
teachers always jump on the opportunity of twisting or corrupting the truth of
difficult things to comprehend throughout the Scriptures. They will take a
controversial passage and run with it; it’s a trademark of theirs. Such fake
teachers, who have not the Holy Spirit, lead the gullible into believing that
they know the truth of everything, but in actuality, they corrupt the text they
touch because they do not know God (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4).
And
here we have Peter, a fisherman by trade, and one who had the Holy Spirit, having
difficulty in comprehending what Paul taught! In such instances of having
trouble apprehending the truth (I have had many), we are expected to accept it
by faith, not attempting to twist the text to our understanding. I have on many
occasions declared, “This is what the Bible says, but do I understand it? No.”
Allow
me to give you two personal examples where I struggle with comprehension, but
to be crystal clear, I am not debating whether it is true or not. The authority
of the Scriptures is firmly established in my heart.
(1)
The Trinity (cf. Gn 1:26; Mt 3:16-17). The Bible teaches that there are
three distinct personalities in the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus
Christ), and God the Holy Spirit but having one essence (cf. Deut 6:4; Mt
28:19; 2 Cor 13:14;1 Tim 2:5). I gave up long ago trying to understand it. All illustrations fall short of the incomprehensible. The Scriptures speak of the plurality of God which seems counterintuitive to the concept of monotheism; I teach it as a fact of revelation; I embrace it as absolute truth even though I do not fully understand it.
(2)
The eternality of God. I cannot even wrap my mind around Yahweh always
existing, never having a beginning in eternity past!
In
my world and yours, everything has a beginning! But I am not going to corrupt
the truth of Scripture to fit my finite construct by dragging God down to a
human level so that I can understand Him (cf. Isa 55:9). That is what idolaters
do.
I
believe Yahweh is eternal, having self-existence (cf. I AM, Ex 3:14; Jn 8:58) because the Bible expresses His eternality in that He is everlasting
(ever-living), way beyond the vanishing point (cf. Gn 1:1; Psa 90:2; Isa 57:15;
Micah 5:2; 1 Tim 6:15-16; Rev 1:8)! We must ever be careful not to be led away with the
error of the wicked due to self-inflicted ignorance (cf. 1 Pet 3:17), making
speculation in the absence of understanding and revelation.
God
having no origination simply blows my mind; because as I said before, in my
world and yours, everything and everyone has a beginning. Creation and all
that is contained therein (inanimate and animate) has a genesis (Gn 1:1) but
not its Creator. Let’s face it; a finite created being, like ourselves, is
unable to comprehend the infinite God, but this should not deter us from reading
and prospecting the Scriptures for veins of truth more precious than gold!
There
is a general principle applicable to this; failure to understand does not provide
a valid negation of Biblical truth. I am going to suggest to you at least two main
reasons why there are some who claim to be believers who refuse to read the
Bible (largely ignoring it in their life): (1) having no interest and (2) seeing
no need for it. This is a sad testament to a life that claims to be born again.
Before addressing this, you might be wondering; how can a person be a Christian and not show any interest in the Bible nor see the need for it in their own lives or only in those OMG moments of life, looking for answers! I will let you draw your own conclusions after reading this article. But let me say in respect to that question; I have my doubts of those claiming fellowship with God and habitually, not occasionally, walking in darkness or governed by something else other than the Scriptures (1 Jn 1:6; 3:7, 10).
Some believers do not see themselves “walking
in darkness” because they consider themselves to be good, moral, ethical, and
law-abiding citizens who believe there is a God, and the Bible is His Word.
They go to church occasionally, give, pray, and even sing praises to God, but
they pretend to be under the Word but never in it due to a marginal interest and
failure to see a need for it as a rule of life. Their own homespun wisdom has taken
care of them throughout the years, and they see no need to change (cf. Jdg 21:25)!
A believer’s habitual lifestyle of righteousness, not occasional, reveals the genuine nature of faith. Those with a habitual lifestyle of unrighteousness disclose a false faith (cf. 1 Jn 3:4, 6). There can be no conflating of the two in attempting to have your cake and eat it, too: practicing sin and practicing righteousness. A room cannot remain in the dark when the light is on. Sinfulness and righteousness are contradictory terms. Personally, I would not trust in some experience that never changed my life.
I find myself in the camp with James, the Lord’s half-brother,
Show
me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (Jas 2:18). <><
