Too Much Safety in Scripture?
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say…
"Words that distort reality are CHOICE," admits Tim Keller in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life. He goes on to confess, "They have enormous appeal. Words create and sustain prejudices, biases, fears, and anxieties that are virtually impossible to uproot."
Paul knows this, and so he warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:7. These teachers in Timothy's church, and we too often along with them don't understand the impact of what we say. We are ready, almost by rote, to revert to the Bible's phrases, and this is actually part of the problem to which Paul is alluding. These purported teachers he is cautioning Timothy about our teaching revealed Scripture from the Old Testament. They have God's Word even more incorporated into their thinking than we do. They deploy it so readily, Paul cautions, that they take it for granted without realizing its power.
Perhaps we will trip over this verse long enough to avoid relegating Scripture to a status as what N.T. Wright in Simply Christian calls verbal wallpaper. Without renewed conviction particular to itself, after all, the Bible's wording will fall under Sally Jenkins's categorization in Real All-Americans, "Language is nothing but a habit."
Perhaps this verse will prick our consciences deeply enough that we will realize how often we use His Word to show our cultural acumen both inside and outside the Church, without applying it to ourselves and pleading for its impact to make us new. We use that Word when convenient to persuade as we wish and to, much to Paul's point manipulate others to our personal preferences. As Christ in Revelation calls us to love Him as we did at first, may we love His Word as we did at first, and be just as convicted when we wield it in vain as when we use His Name the same way.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say…
"Words that distort reality are CHOICE," admits Tim Keller in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life. He goes on to confess, "They have enormous appeal. Words create and sustain prejudices, biases, fears, and anxieties that are virtually impossible to uproot."
Paul knows this, and so he warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:7. These teachers in Timothy's church, and we too often along with them don't understand the impact of what we say. We are ready, almost by rote, to revert to the Bible's phrases, and this is actually part of the problem to which Paul is alluding. These purported teachers he is cautioning Timothy about our teaching revealed Scripture from the Old Testament. They have God's Word even more incorporated into their thinking than we do. They deploy it so readily, Paul cautions, that they take it for granted without realizing its power.
Perhaps we will trip over this verse long enough to avoid relegating Scripture to a status as what N.T. Wright in Simply Christian calls verbal wallpaper. Without renewed conviction particular to itself, after all, the Bible's wording will fall under Sally Jenkins's categorization in Real All-Americans, "Language is nothing but a habit."
Perhaps this verse will prick our consciences deeply enough that we will realize how often we use His Word to show our cultural acumen both inside and outside the Church, without applying it to ourselves and pleading for its impact to make us new. We use that Word when convenient to persuade as we wish and to, much to Paul's point manipulate others to our personal preferences. As Christ in Revelation calls us to love Him as we did at first, may we love His Word as we did at first, and be just as convicted when we wield it in vain as when we use His Name the same way.
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