A Thought For The Week Of October 10, 2016

"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him." (Proverbs 30:5) Those opening words - "every word of God is flawless" - represent quite a challenge.You have to wonder first what's meant by "word of God." A lot of fundamentalist Christians take what I would consider to be a simplistic approach and just draw a one to one equation with the Bible. Bible = word of God; word of God = Bible. And I understand, of course, that we refer to the Bible as the word of God. But that's challenging. For example, when we read of God ordering mass killings and plunder - is that really the word of God? Ethically and morally - even given that the root of ethics and morality come from God and more precisely from the Bible - there are parts of the Bible that seem ungodly. And, of course, the Bible isn't witnessing to itself. So we can't take this verse from Proverbs and say that because of it Romans or 1 John or Revelation are flawless. I always think first and foremost of the word of God as Jesus. Jesus is flawless. His life and his way - yes, as described in the Bible - is flawless. And, of course, that begs the question of what's meant by "flawless." Does it literally mean that everything that's written down in the Bible is perfect? I think that what it means is that's what written in the Bible is inspired. Perhaps the author of 1 Timothy had this verse in mind when he wrote that "all Scripture is inspired ..." I think it's too simplistic by far to simply believe that "every word of God is flawless" means that every single word and letter and comma and period of the Bible is perfect. I believe that "every word of God is flawless" leads us into a much deeper exploration of both the Bible and of the life of Jesus - an exploration that's going to change our lives for the better by bringing us ever closer to God.