"It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him. We must not use the Bible as a sort of encyclopedia out of which texts can be taken for use as weapons." - C. S. Lewis, Letters
Found this quote for the first time today and thought it was fascinating. It goes along the lines of what he wrote about in Reflections on the Psalms on the doctrine of Inerrancy, which I wrote about early in this series.
My pastor, Pastor Chuck, spoke on something akin to this on Sunday. The sermon was about the disputable matters of the Bible, taken from Romans 14:
My pastor, Pastor Chuck, spoke on something akin to this on Sunday. The sermon was about the disputable matters of the Bible, taken from Romans 14:
"Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister. Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. [etc.]"
Together these speak to me of peace.
I love debate. But I love it less than I did. It DOES promote controversy. I used to think the importance of the matter permitted the arguments and the intensity of emotion. But if God puts these disputable matters on the backburner, I should too.
God really, really loves people. Instead of using the Bible as a weapon, I want to use it as the crook of a staff to draw people to him.
Lewis made a lot of good arguments in his books. Excellent, athiest-changing, perspective-on-heaven-changing, ideas-about-God-changing arguments. They're important.
But Lewis was always sure to put first things first and second things second - which I'll explore in my next post.
I love debate. But I love it less than I did. It DOES promote controversy. I used to think the importance of the matter permitted the arguments and the intensity of emotion. But if God puts these disputable matters on the backburner, I should too.
God really, really loves people. Instead of using the Bible as a weapon, I want to use it as the crook of a staff to draw people to him.
Lewis made a lot of good arguments in his books. Excellent, athiest-changing, perspective-on-heaven-changing, ideas-about-God-changing arguments. They're important.
But Lewis was always sure to put first things first and second things second - which I'll explore in my next post.