Awhile ago now, Bryan and I were discussing what the “root” sin of the Church is for today. What’s the main issue with which she is struggling? I had a few thoughts and Bryan agreed they were important issues and worthy of being struggled with, still he kept asking me “but what’s the root? What’s at the bottom of it all?”
We finally settled on one: Our lack of understanding the Bible.
Each of the struggles I pointed out were problems mainly bc different passages of Scripture were either being ignored or twisted.
The heart of the struggle in the Church today is not the political divide, the different view points and biases we all have, or even the many different denominations that fill our cities.
The problem is: we no longer know the Word of God.
It’s been a slow and long process. In my opinion, one of the biggest struggles began the moment the Church decided to break the Bible into two sections calling one “the Old” and the second “the New.”
We began to feel as if “the Old” had nothing to do with us, nothing to teach us. What do you do with old things but throw them out, replace them with what’s new. We’re always excited over “the new piece of technology” or the “new information” we just learned. We even ask our friends “what’s new?” So, why do I need to read the “old” when I can read the “new”?
But what if we’re wrong? What if the first part of the Bible wasn’t just the first half that’s all about the “old stuff,” but was actually intended to be a foundation upon which the rest of Scripture was built? What if we’re suppose to read and understand the Bible like we do any other book – starting with the beginning?
What if we really viewed ALL of Scripture as God-breathed and profitable for rebuking, teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness? Even the genealogies, even Leviticus or Numbers. What if we really believed God was on each page and hand-picked each word? What if we searched the Scriptures not for what it says about us or even what it means for us today? But, what if we searched, wrestled, and struggled with the Bible to see what it was teaching us about God?
What if we knew ALL of the Bible, much less lived by it? I wonder how our lives and Churches would change…