Pondering the Bible as a Way of Life, Pt. 2
Pt. 4 of Living a Classical Christian Life
Growing up, much of my theological and Biblical imagination was shaped by the Left Behind series and movies such as Like a Thief in the Night. Much of my education was also shaped by the eschatological vision of these stories.
The Bible was often seen as a sort of instruction manual to prepare Christians for the Rapture, which we all knew was going to come at any moment. I would be taught slogans like BIBLE- Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The idea was that we needed to prepare for the end of the world; the Bible was sort of a guidebook on basic living until that last moment inevitably struck.
I think all of this was well-intentioned by my pastors and Bible teachers. I know I came to faith in this environment, and it is thanks to many of these individuals that I didn’t walk away from the faith in my college years (as so many of my classmates did!). Even if the Bible was seen in a sort of simplistic, instruction manual fashion, I was taught to love the Scriptures, and I still use the Bible I received at my graduation.
At the same time, I came to realize that the Bible is far more than the simplistic “instructions” I was taught by slogans. It is the very word of God, and its job is to master me; I am not to master it.
The Bible is Meant to Grow Us
A thing we often forget as Christians is how different the teachings of the Scriptures are. The Christian influence on the West is palpable, and it is easy to take the undercurrent of Christian theology for granted. So much of our social structure is based on a Christian understanding of reality. It can be easy to forget that this social order is very distinct, historically speaking.
It is also easy to forget that we have a really hard time living up to the Bible’s moral expectations. Take, for instance, the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:27-30 reads:
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Think about this for a moment. How often do we look with lust or improper desire at others? Do we really embrace that doing this is akin to being adulterous? Better yet, do we really have such a strong reaction to sin that we believe dismemberment would be better than defying the moral order of God? I know I often don’t.
Sure, we can point to this sin or that sin that we are adamantly against, but can we do this for all sins? Hardly.
The Western world is oriented toward many good things, in large part due to our Christian heritage. However, we often only scratch the surface of what it really means to follow Jesus' teachings. Imagine what it might mean to hate sin so much that would would rather cut off a hand rather than allow that hand to lead you into sin. Imagine what it would be like to quit a well-paying job if that job was predicated on you doing things less-than-righteous.
What I do not mean is that in order to follow Jesus we must live a wholly sacrificial life or that we must be extreme in everything we do. (a la Platt’s Radical) Instead, all I am pointing out is that, as CS Lewis noted in The Weight of Glory, our desires are not too strong but too weak. We (I) often don’t want the things of Christ badly enough that we would be willing to sacrifice for them.
The point of this post, however, is not to point out our lack of moral convictions. Far from it. The point is to note that the Bible, while providing rules and instructions, is also a tool to grow us.
I know I cannot fully live out the Sermon on the Mount, but it gives me an ideal to aim for. I will never fully live up to the life Jesus commands, but I have a target to use in the reformation of my manners and actions. Each time I read and reflect on the Sermon, I am reminded that I am less than ideal, and I am given the opportunity to reform my actions and behaviors to be more like that of Christ. (And before you raise this objection, of course, this reform is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit!)
Reading the Bible as a Way of Life
This is why I refer to reading the Bible as a “Way of Life.” I should not read the Bible and expect to come away with a neat and tidy set of answers. Though the Bible does make some things very plain, much of it requires the continual drumbeat of daily reflection. I need to read and reread again and again.
It is obvious that lust is akin to adultery, but how do I prevent myself from lusting? At what point have I lusted vs. appreciated the beauty of an image bearer? Do I despise this lusting because I hate the sin, or because I don’t want the consequence? Is my heart oriented to love the good more than just hating the sin?
These are just some of the questions we have to wrestle with, and they come from just one section of the Sermon— which is just one section of just one book! The whole Bible leads us into this kind of reflection. Each time we read, we should be confronted with new questions and continually ponder what following Jesus really means.
This means that reading the Bible is both easy and hard. The easy things (Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved) should give us comfort as we wrestle with the hard things. (“But I tell you, whoever is angry with his brother is subject to judgment” or “Baptism, which corresponds to this…now saves you.”)
For the difficult sections, we are blessed with the opportunity to ponder the Lord's wisdom for the rest of our lives. Perhaps this was his goal: to give us those things that we might never fully understand so that we may learn to lean on his wisdom and trust that his guidance is better than anything we might devise for ourselves.
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