All Of It?

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16,17 NKJV

Christians have a tendency to cherry pick the verses they like, and ignore many others which they either don’t understand, or cannot agree with. There are some verses which go against our lifestyle, and these are the hardest ones to deal with, because they go to the very heart of our faith, but more importantly our response. These verses remind us that ALL scripture is there for a reason, even the parts we don’t like or understand!

I was reminded in very direct language, through the comments of a recent blog, that some parts of society just don’t want to accept large parts of the Bible. In fact, they think the Old Testament is contradictory, and not relative to our modern day living, and the Apostles say too much about lifestyle in their epistles to be acceptable. That leaves the four Gospels, thus making a very short personal Bible. Oddly, the reasons for this kind of cherry picking, can be the things that are clearly written which we don’t like. In truth, we don’t get to use the Bible like a ‘pick and mix’ selection. We must take it all, even the parts we don’t like or understand.

It is clear then. If we are going to name the name of Christ, and call ourselves ‘Christians’, we must accept the fact that the whole Bible is for our complete life in Christ. Accepting anything less makes us ‘Christ-less’,and it doesn’t matter who we are, or what our lifestyle is like. My suggestion is to read the whole Bible, and try to understand the underlying question of ‘why’ when we come to parts we are not familiar with. I have found that so called ‘contradictions’ become clear when we read with a prayerful heart. The Bible taken as a whole is not really confusing, but it may not help if a person is looking for an excuse for sinful living. We must read with what faith we have, after all: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 KJV