I feel really sorry for the Bible. It’s never fun to be misunderstood especially when so many horrendous things happen as a result of that misunderstanding. You know – things like judgment racism sexism murder war unspeakable pain and injustice just to name a few.
Within Christianity two camps seem to stand out in relation to Biblical interpretation: those who take the Bible as the absolute final word of God to be read and applied literally and those who believe that while it is inspired by God the Bible is to be put into historical context and read more as a story revealing God’s character. The impossible result of these dichotomies both sides perpetuating the polarity of the situation is that the beauty of the Bible has been all but lost completely in the midst of a mindless struggle.
It is human nature to desire tangibility predictability cut and dry black and white. Naturally we want things spelled out for us. We want things that require as little uncertainty and risk as possible. So it makes sense for people to have taken the Bible and turned it into something that it was never intended to be – a rulebook; hard and fast set of laws to be followed or else.
That’s easy to understand and easy to force onto others right? Actually it’s entirely restricting and condemning. That’s what Jesus came to eradicate – laws that bind us instead of laws that free us.
One day he and his apostles were starving to death. They just so happened to be walking through a grain field and therefore naturally decided to pick a few heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees’ immediate reaction was to call them out for violating a Sabbath law (one they had created not God). Jesus shuts the Pharisees down in their loss of logic establishing his authority over everything as the Son of God by pointing out the fact that God didn’t establish the Sabbath to be yet another binding law. He wanted it rather to free man from the burdens of life throughout the week. Hence the quote “The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.” Heck I wish someone would offer me a day to do nothing but rest.
Granted the Pharisees’ laws were at their most sincere attempt created to help people uphold a law that was essentially designed for their own good. The Sabbath for instance had many regulations. It used to be a rule not to work the fields. This way people were forced to take a day to rest. But eventually they lost sight of God’s intention for the Sabbath and it became just another day to be stressed out about breaking laws.
While these extra rules they created were originally intended for good the problem came when they began to enforce these rules – rules humans created themselves onto others as God’s law making non-compliance with these rules a sin.
It’s simple: when Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophecies the only other “law” he left us was to love God and love each other. When you do those things – when you’re truly seeking to know God know His character know who He is beyond anything and everything else – you will find that who He is inspires you to follow Him.
Rules aren’t inspiring. God is the one who inspires people to love. And when people love people – selflessly sincerely and freely – there in that unwarranted giving to another out of free will and nothing else one finds God.
I would much rather speak to someone who meditates on the nature of God than someone who can quote to me from a book chapter and verse on what a worship service should look like. I think God would too.