Jason's Blog

Simple obedience is all about doing what Jesus says.  Everybody is for that idea in general—even the most conservative of Christians.  That is until the literal words of Jesus get under our skin. 

I have to give credit to Shane Claiborne and his Irresistable Revolution (2006).  He really hits the nail on the head by quoting Soren Kierkegaard from the nineteenth century:

“The matter is quite simple.  The Bible is very easy to understand.  But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers.  We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly.  Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly.  My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.  How will I ever get on in the world?” 

How true!  What’s amazing about Bible interpretation is the lengths that we will go to so that we can be a literalists with one part of scripture (the part we like) and yet stay far away from what Jesus would actually say about how we should live.

To put it more strongly, why would we stand behind an inerrant view of a literal creation in 6 days or a patternist stance on worship assembly practices and neglect the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith? 

Why defend our faith with a zealous, angry, and bitter spirit?  Wouldn’t it better to be more literal with what Jesus says about how we are to treat one another?  Or the poor?

So may you be obedient today in the fullest sense that Word speaks to you.