How Folk Read the Bible: Selectively
Posted by Jim on May 28, 2007
Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the average believer will know for certainty that people normally read the Bible quite selectively. They pick and choose what they will heed and they simply dismiss, with the wave of a pompous finger, those bits they find personally uncomfortable.
For example, when Paul tells Timothy that it is his responsibility to “study in order to show himself an approved worker for God who needn’t be ashamed” many simply ignore it and refuse to apply the injunction to study to themselves. “That’s for someone else, but not for me” they claim. All the while, nonetheless, claiming those parts of the Bible that they like and applying them completely to themselves. In fact, you can’t find a single Christian who doesn’t want John 3:16 to apply to them.
Selective reading. Jesus has a word of warning for those who practice it.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5).
Selective readers teach others to read and apply Scripture selectively, ignoring the fact that all of it is theologically important and even relevant. Be wary of selective reading, and selective readers.
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