Staying Tethered
Is the Bible just some super old, outdated book that affirms slavery? Is the God of the Old Testament an angry monster and totally different from the sweet and loving Jesus of the New Testament? Is the Bible bigoted and racist and hateful toward women? Is the Bible unhelpful when dealing with the issues of our day?
No.
The Bible is NOT the problem. Misunderstanding, misapplying, or simply ignoring it is. There are indeed easy answers to all the questions above, yet our society and even parts of the Christian church ask them all the time and quickly embrace worldly philosophies that seem to make more sense on the surface.
Many have run into what the Bible describes as “myths” because they have been hurt in the church, which does make sense to me. But hear me, if you’ve been unjustly hurt in church ministry, it’s not because of the rules or mandates set in scripture. It’s because of somebody’s inability or refusal to properly apply and follow the rules and mandates set in scripture. Have fallen people twisted the Bible to defend their wrongdoing throughout history? Yes. But God’s Word is not at fault for human misrepresentation.
If we who trust in Christ alone for salvation read, properly apply, and follow Biblical truth, our marriages, families, businesses, ministries, leadership principals, politics, relationships, communities, and ideas of justice will all cohesively function properly within the absolute bounds of truth, which is defined by God in scripture. Not a prosperity gospel kind of success, but definitionally, we will be equipped to understand and respond to the world as it truly exists rather than blindly reach for truth based on the world’s broken ideologies and dangerous solutions to misdiagnosed problems.
What we feel changes with the tides. We need to be tethered to the rock, or else we WILL drift. We won’t know how to truly face the storm, and we’ll end up shipwrecked. The Bible is the single, true, good, right, and sufficient source for all Christian life, faith, and practice. It’s a deep, deep well. The more we read it, the more we’ll truly understand the heart of God. The more we’ll be conformed to it, but we can’t apply it or understand it if we don’t read it.
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“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
