The Bible is first and foremost a story. It is a story that reveals who the creator of the universe is, His dealings with humanity, the redemption He offers through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how that played out through the early church as they sought to advance the Kingdom of God. We should primarily relate to scripture as the continuation of the story that God is making and fulfilling. Yet, this is not how we find ourselves using the Bible often times. We would rather search for verses that will produce 5 tips for healthy relationships. We would also rather have a Bible that lays out rules so that we know exactly whats expected of us at all times. We want answers, but the Bible isn’t always set up to provide the answers we are seeking. It is, however, set up to show us our maker’s character through the true image of our God who is Jesus! Through His life and death, we can learn so much about what it means to live out Christ’s call to love God and love others in our present day and time. But there is still something inside of us that desperately wants to cling to a Bible that offers rules, instead of a Bible that offers us a story.
Here are three reasons I believe that we love making the Bible a rule book:
1) It’s easier to follow rules than live a life grounded in love
For a person who is born into sin, love isn’t exactly something that comes natural to us. The only thing we enter the world loving is ourselves. Unfortunately, God doesn’t tell us that the greatest command is to love ourselves. He says that the greatest command is to first love God and to secondly love other people. If we are following the example of Christ, then love is going to look humble, selfless, gracious, compassionate, gentle, and kind. Living out this kind of love is much more difficult than living out a prescribed set of rules. If you have had a hard day at work, and your spouse nags you for not taking out the trash, it would be much easier to not yell if there was simply an established rule that forbade yelling at a spouse. It would be much more difficult to take a deep breath and ask ones’ self “what is the best way to love my spouse in a compassionate and gentle way.” We’re sinners. We aren’t wired to naturally think about others. Rules are easy. Living out love is hard. Ultimately, when we choose to live from a place of love that comes from an overflow of the love that Christ has filled in our hearts, it is a much more satisfying experience than simply obeying a bunch of rules that has no connection to who we are (or who we desire to be) as people.
2) The Holy Spirit can be dangerous
In many churches, the Spirit functions like that weird uncle at Christmas that no one wants to talk about. He’s there, but He’s a little different from the rest of the group, and when He starts to speak up or do something out of the ordinary (which is always likely to happen), the subject is quickly changed and heads and quickly turned the other way. Jesus doesn’t teach us that He is going to leave us with a book that has rules in it to guide us. He teaches us that he is going to leave us his Spirit. Let me interject here that I totally believe that scripture is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. But we often cling to the Bible to the neglect of the Spirit (as if they were equals). We worship the God who is presented in the Bible, yet many come eerily close to worshipping the Bible itself. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you can just close the book. It’s not going to work the way it needs to work without God being totally present in His guidance as you read His word. We worship a God that is never dull. He is full of surprises, yet we tend to flee from progress and change. We would much rather stick to what we know. The Bible is a book where the words never change. John 3:16 is always going to be John 3:16 no matter what day you turn there. But the Spirit is constantly pushing us to see things in a new way. The Spirit challenges our boundaries and often sends us off the edge as we attempt to weave our way through this journey called life. When we cling to a familiar Bible full of rules and devoid of a wild Spirit, we will never live up to the potential that God created us to have.
3) We believe God’s holiness and perfection necessitates strictness and black and white thinking.
God tells the Israelites that they have to be holy, because He is holy. They are supposed to obey all the laws set for them in the Old Testament, which sets the apart from the other nations. In the New Testament, we learn that the law was set up to reveal the sinfulness of our hearts. Fortunately, we serve a God of grace. And where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Think of a daughter who disobeys her father. He must punish her for her disobedience and says that she is not allowed to use the phone for 2 weeks. There is nothing inherently wrong about using the phone. It is the Father’s way of punishing His daughter for disobeying. Its super similar with the laws that God establishes for Israel. God had planned on making Israel a kingdom of priests. He tells them to come up Mt. Sinai with Moses, but they get afraid and refuse to go. Instead of consecrating them at the top of the mountain as a Kingdom of Priests, God gives Moses laws and creates a Kingdom with priests instead. Hebrews teaches us that Jesus is the ultimate High Priest and that through Him, we also are a kingdom of priests. It is so awesome how God unfolds His story! I don’t believe that dads are unreasonable or believe talking on phones is evil when daughters are punished for disobeying. I don’t believe God is unreasonable or believes that lobster is evil because His sons and daughters disobeyed Him. There is a time and purpose for everything that God does! We are living in and through a Messiah who understands what it means to be human. God is holy, but that doesn’t mean he loves to weigh us down with rules. If He did, He would not have sacrificed His son to set us free!
May you live in the grace and peace of a God who desperately loves you and wants to use you to tell His story.
Cognitive Panorama 