Let the Bible be the Bible!
Why do we strive to regulate, manage and systemize the Bible? Why do we reduce it to simple terms? Why do we try to cut it down to our size?
Do we really believe we can exercise control over God’s Word? Can the extraordinary be reduced to the ordinary? Can we grasp what’s sacred with our minds? Can the Story that runs deeper than our stories be governed by us? Can those in the world order the Word that brings order to the world?
Of course not. God’s Word cannot and will not be subjugated by man. “Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word” Hebrews 4:13 (MSG), for it’s wider and deeper than the sum of our years. Framed from the very beginning, it endures forever. “Laying us open to listen and obey” Hebrews 4:12 (MSG).
A tool for enlightenment …
How dare we think we can make it do our bidding? How dare we reduce it, as Anglican theologian N.T. Wright says, “So that whatever text we preach on it will say basically the same things?” How dare we treat it, as American Presbyterian minister Eugene Peterson says, “as just another tool for enlightenment or access to knowledge.”
We do well to remember that it’s not us that meets with the Bible so much as the Bible that meets with us. “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9.
Note the repeated use of the word “higher.” God is in control, not us. Because God is in control, we must come under His authority. We must relate to His Word on His terms and read His Story, recognizing that it’s powerful and distinct.
What does that look like? How do we read the Bible on God’s terms? How do we read it without controlling our interaction with the text and its impact on our lives? Better still, how does the Bible read us?
God’s Word reads us when we allow it to reform and reshape us, offer it our hearts and ask it to fill us, invite it to straighten out our thinking and stretch our reason into shape, and let it work through us—when we permit it to guide our steps by its precepts.
Manipulating texts …
We fall short when translating scripture into timeless truths but don’t allow Truth to transform us. We fall short when we read it and get nothing from it beyond what we already know. We fall short when we don’t constantly recapitulate ourselves to it. And we fall short when we stick to selections of favourite passages while gagging the terrifying and tremendous things the Scriptures say.
May half-hearted or hard-headed Bible reading be seen for what it is. May we never take control of the text as if it’s powerless without our intervention. May we never inflict our views on a passage. And, may we never exercise our critical tendencies to manipulate texts to corroborate our egocentric biases.
Living with the mystery of the scriptures …
Will we be open to living with the mystery of the scriptures even when we’re uncomfortable? Can we allow the Word to become our word in the intimate ways God has scripted for us? Do we know the wholeness that comes from engaging with it? Will we permit the scriptures to judge and recreate our thoughts, intentions, imaginations, and memories? And will we constantly seek to live in its light?
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Summary
This article challenges the common tendency to control or simplify the Bible, reminding readers that God’s Word is vast, profound, and beyond human manipulation. It emphasizes that God’s Word cannot be reduced to mere tools for enlightenment or personal gain, and that we must come under its authority, not the other way around. Instead of seeking to manage or limit its message, we should allow the scriptures to shape and transform us, letting them challenge our beliefs, thoughts, and lives. Ultimately, the call is to let the Bible be the Bible—allowing it to read and reform us according to God’s will rather than manipulating it to fit our biases and understanding.
© Scripture Union Canada
