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Fight for the Main Point

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The main points of the Bible are the ones worth fighting for. Often, however, Christians disagree over things other than the main points. And while we’re not wrong to draw conclusions about secondary, debatable, or implied points, such conclusions must never drown out the Bible’s main points.

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

The Pharisees demonstrate the problem. As the fundamentalists of their day, they cared about God’s truth. They wanted to glorify God and live lives pleasing to him. They passionately protected important doctrines, and they went to great lengths to win converts and change the world.

But in the process of remembering good things, they forgot the best things.

They attended Bible studies to improve their lives, but they didn’t embrace Life when God sent him (John 5:39-40).

They promoted God’s moral standards to a degenerate, fallen world, but they plotted harm on the day designed for doing good (Mark 3:1-6).

They put God first over every relationship, but they neglected God’s own wishes for human relationships (Matthew 15:3-6).

Sometimes Jesus condemns them for doing the wrong things, but sometimes he condemns them for neglecting the best things. Consider this judgement in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt 23:23-24, ESV)

Notice that they should have continued tithing. They weren’t expected to exercise justice, mercy, or faithfulness instead of giving 10%. They were expected to exercise justice, mercy, and faithfulness in addition to it. They always drank skim milk, but then got caught eating too much ice cream.

Today, we likewise can get distracted from the Bible’s main points. The worst distractions are not bad things but good things. They’re not false teaching but true teaching. They’re not opposed to God’s kingdom but in favor of God’s kingdom. These distractions consist of things that should concern us, but they’re not the only things that should concern us. Nor are they the main things that should concern us. We should reserve plenty of bandwidth for the weightier matters.

For example, we study Genesis 1 and focus our discussion on the length or literalness of the days of creation. We spend so much time on the “what” that we forget to seek the “why,” and we mistakenly believe we know the “why” because we’ve discovered the “what.” We might get the “what” (“What is the length of each day?”), and we should try hard to get the “what.” But we must press on to get the “why” (“Why does the author tell the story of creation as a sequence of 7 days?”). We must not neglect the fact that God’s creative process sets the pattern for our lives on earth (Mark 10:6-9, 2 Cor 4:5-6, Heb 4:1-5). And we must not ignore Jesus—the creator, light, life, word, sustainer, ruler, subduer, multiplier, author of faith, image of the invisible God, and firstborn of all creation.

For another example, we study Hebrews 11 and trumpet the heroes of faith. And rightly so, as the text recounts their lives with much fanfare. But we must not miss the main point. It’s a faith hall of fame and not a works hall of fame. The point is not so much to show the greatness of these heroes as it is to show their smallness. We should fix our gaze on these heroes, but only as long as we keep Jesus in our field of vision. The heroes huddle around us, bearing witness to the real Hero, Jesus (Heb 12:1-2).

Finding a passage’s main point is hard work, but we must fight to get it. And once we’ve got it, we must fight to keep it.

The Importance of Context, Part 1

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“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“I think so, Brain, but Lederhosen won’t stretch that far.”

The cartoon Animaniacs got a lot of mileage out of this joke.  The two mice would find themselves in a pickle of one sort or another.  Brain, the genius, would intuit a solution and ask his famous question.  Pinky, the dolt, would take him out of context and say something so ridiculous that the joke never got old.

The joke isn’t funny, though, when Christians live it out in their Bible study.

Do you know what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them” (Matt 18:20, ESV)?  Hint: it wasn’t about prayer groups.  If you pray alone, Jesus is still with you (Matt 6:6, 28:20).  Observe the context in Matt 18:15-20.

Who was God assuring when he said, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11)?  Hint: it wasn’t Christians who were struggling with a big decision.  Observe the context in Jer 29:1-3.

What did Paul intend by his infamous “Love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13?  Hint: it was a rebuke, not a Hallmark card.  Observe the context in 1 Cor 11:17; 12:31b; 14:20, 40.

Every Bible passage has a context.  If we lift individual verses from their context, we endanger interpretation.  At best, we might still hit on biblical truth; we just look foolish to the watching world when they see that a passage doesn’t mean what we think it means.  At worst, we run into error, heresy, or unbelief, or we lead others into those things.  Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons use the Bible to support their doctrines, too.

Observation tip: Look for contrasts

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“The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.” – C.S. Lewis

“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.” – Mark Twain

“I don’t think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.” – Barack Obama

The quotes above, regardless of whether you agree with them or not, have this in common: they are all statements of contrast. (We’ve written about other examples of contrasts in an earlier post.) Contrasts are very helpful at emphasizing the difference between two things. That is, each side of a contrast can contain some observation that is useful, but when compared against one another, their differences are highlighted. This is very useful in determining the main point of the speaker/author.

We use contrasts all the time in our daily speech and the Scriptures are chock full of them. One sure-fire way to spot a contrast is to look for the word, “but”. That’s not the only way to find contrasts, but it’s a good starting point. (Did you notice that contrast right there?)

Consider these texts and how the contrasts emphasize the statements:

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” (Proverbs 31:28-29 ESV, emphasis mine)

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. (Romans 4:13-16 ESV, emphasis mine)

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18 ESV, emphasis mine)

The three examples above are from Proverbs, Romans and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). All three of those sections of Scripture make frequent use of contrasts. Why not go through a chapter or two of those sections to see how many contrasts you can pick out, and what it tells us about God, men, sin and salvation? It will be well worth your time!