1. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that I don’t have it all together. Growing up I was frequently reminded that the Bible, through the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin… and you know what, it’s true. The more I get to know my Bible the more I realize how deeply flawed I am… which makes me see others more compassionately, because I am reminded that they are just like me. T 2. The more I read my Bible, the more I develop humility. The Apostle Paul says that we should view our sins as being worse than anyone else, and that we should view ourselves as walking examples of how patient God is with people who can’t get it together. 3. The more I read my Bible, the more I discover that justice for the poor and oppressed is at the heart of it. I opened my Bible… and discovered that commands to care for them are all over the place from the Old Testament, all the way through the New Testament. God wants us to care for, serve, and love these people. 4. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize “redistribution of wealth” wasn’t Obama’s idea– it was God’s. . In the Old Testament we have years of Jubilee, restrictions on gleaning your garden more than once, a command from God that there should be “no poor among you”, and prophets who came to denounce the nation when the rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer. 5. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that the early Christians actually practiced this re-distribution of wealth. Those early Christians? Well, for a time they actually practiced some radical economic principles. And, guess what? The book of Acts tells us that there weren’t any poor people among them. They rejected individual ownership, gave their wealth to leadership who in turn, redistributed it according to need. There weren’t any mandatory drug testing programs, just assistance according to need. 6. The more I read my Bible the more I realize Jesus taught we need to pay our taxes. After reading 4 and 5, some are probably saying “yeah, but that was never supposed to be the government’s job”. Well, in the life of Jesus we see him tell someone that he should “sell everything and give it to the poor”, and to yet another we see that Jesus commands us to pay our taxes. So, it looks like we’re not getting off the hook either way– we need to pay our taxes AND give private charity. It’s not an either or proposition. 7. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God wants us to be people who are quick to show mercy. The prophet Micah says that “loving mercy” is actually something God “requires” of us. Jesus tells us that justice and mercy are the “more important” parts of God’s law. This means that when it comes to issues of justice, economics, poverty, the death penalty, etc., I have become more quick to take the default position that sides with radical mercy. 8. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God cares how we treat immigrants. Whenever God lists out a group of people that he wants his people to take care of, immigrants make the cut. The more I read about God’s heart for the immigrant, the more I realize that I might be held accountable for how I treat them, and how I talk about them. 9. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God will hold us accountable for how we care for the environment. The more I read my Bible, the more I see that God’s original mandate for humanity, was to care for creation– we were designed for and given the task of being environmental conservationists. In the end? Well, we see that God is going to judge quite harshly those who refused: “The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev 11:18) 10. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God isn’t judging us by whether or not we get all of our doctrine right– he’s judging us by whether or not we get the “love one another” part right. God is less concerned with us all sharing the same doctrine but is heavily concerned with whether or not we love each other. In fact, Jesus said this would be the calling card of his followers, and how others would realize we’re actually following Jesus– that we love one another.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:18:56 +0000
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