I sat in a church meeting in which people were encouraged to ‘share.’ There was no shortage of candidates to walk up to the front and tell what they ‘felt God was saying to me.’ Some of it was encouraging and to the point, but some ranged from puzzling to outright wacky. One stood out for me as instructional in all the ways the speaker probably hadn’t intended.
It is troubling when people who don’t know the Bible, God’s written Word, nevertheless feel God can and does speak through them, that they can be God’s immanent word.
You hear these things where someone will say, ‘didn’t Jesus, or someone, say somewhere?’ Or, ‘wasn’t there something about dry bones?’ ‘I forget who said, ‘the battle belongs to the LORD.’’ I almost walked to the front and said, ‘I believe God is saying, ‘go home and get better acquainted with your Bible.’’ It is troubling when people who don’t know the Bible, God’s written Word, nevertheless feel God can and does speak through them, that they can be God’s immanent word.
Dear Timothy…
Paul seems to anticipate this problem in his second letter to Timothy. Paul is in prison in Rome, anticipating execution(4:6-8). He urges Timothy to stand firm in the gospel, ‘But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene…’ (2:15/16)
Chapter 3 contains a sober warning of, ‘lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy...having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people…’
Jesus writes in a similar way to the church at Sardis in Revelation, saying, ‘You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.’ (Rev.3:1) It is true to say we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
How do people have a form of godliness without being holy? How does a church have the appearance of being alive when it is dead? Busyness will do it. A tranche of programmes, a cast of helpers, a list of assignments, a smattering of the right words and phrases; oh, but we are so busy about the Lords work.
Didn’t Jesus say:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
The church in Sardis had forgotten the message of grace. Jesus counselled, ‘Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent.’ (v.3) Paul’s counsel to Timothy is sobering:
‘I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.’ (4:1/2)
Earlier in his letter Paul looks to the future in his counsel:
‘You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.’ (2:1/2)
It is in this letter that Paul insists:
‘All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the an of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.’ (3:16/17)
We need to take seriously Christ’s counsel to Sardis, ‘Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent.’ We need to see the Bible for what it is, ‘God breathed'
‘Breathed out,’ in these verses translates a word believed to have been coined by Paul from two words ‘God’ and ‘breathed’ indicating the authority of Scripture as being of divine origin. We need to take seriously Christ’s counsel to Sardis, ‘Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent.’ We need to see the Bible for what it is, ‘God breathed.’
We are the ones entrusted with its care today; are we faithful to this ‘more sure word of prophecy to which we would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place..?’ (2 Peter 2:19-21)
Dear You…
Only a third of Christians read the Bible daily. As you brace yourself for the shower of guilt and recrimination that often follows such a statement, let me bring you instead a word of encouragement, a letter from the heart:
Dear You,
Two-thirds of Christians are not regular Bible readers. While this is an indictment against the church it is an opportunity for you to step up, shine for Jesus, and be an encouragement to others. The competition isn’t exactly stiff.
If you read your Bible daily, several chapters at least at a sitting, you can be the one in the group to come up with the appropriate Bible verses, the one who throws light on difficult passages others struggle with, the one with the right words of comfort and encouragement from Scripture, the one others look to for godly advice, the one to whom God will say, ’well done, good and faithful servant.’
All this because you committed yourself to faithfully reading, knowing, teaching and passing on what has been passed down to us over so many generations.
God bless you as you learn from his word to walk in the light of his truth.
Your brother in the faith
Michael
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