One of the more instructive sentences about the true human condition, that really doesn't mean to be so instructive, comes when the Apostle Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 7:10, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.”
But only two verses later in verse 12 he writes: “But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her” (emphasis added).
The human condition includes those moments when WE feel the real urge to go ahead and run ahead of the Lord, particularly in instruction.
Does Paul issue the Lord’s command in the first instance, but only offer a personal opinion in the second? Do we have to obey the first instruction but not the second since Paul says that the second comes from him rather than from the Lord? Do we teach that way today?
My mom used to quote all sorts of scripture that wasn't, scripture I mean. Over and over "cleanliness was next to Godliness" in her Bible only, as an example.
The three sources of authority for the earliest Christians were: (1) the teachings of Jesus passed on orally by the apostles; (2) the instructions of the apostles (cf. Acts 2:42); and (3) the words of the prophets, that is, the Old Testament Scriptures. These three streams of authority were different from each other stream, but each of the three was binding on early Christians.
But are they on us? Do we need to follow Rick Warren or Paul? Do we need to listen to Kay Arthur telling us what the scriptures say, or what they mean, or what they should have meant?
There's a real danger here, and it has always existed, that we justify all sorts of things that the Bible never really says because we're readers not students of the Bible. We don't attempt to understand what the writing meant then and what it means to us now, in many cases.
We simply go ahead say, "Well, I believe ..." or we say conclusively, "God says..." when speaking for Jehovah is always very dangerous.
The prophet Jeremiah warned, "You should keep asking each other, ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What is the Lord saying?’ But stop using this phrase, ‘prophecy from the Lord.’ For people are using it to give authority to their own ideas, turning upside down the words of our God, the living God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies."
Seem to me that we must be very, very careful, how often we feel the urge to and then act upon the notion of saying "thus saith the Lord" on things concerning which the explicit teaching of Scripture is clear and especially those things when it is not.
Course, that's what I say, not the Lord.
1 comment:
"speaking for Jehovah is always very dangerous" Not many things stop me from blabbing and giving too much rein to my sometimes destructive tongue. But that statement stops me in my tracks when I start to condemn or criticize.
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