Which is more important to love others or know the word?

I was reminded this weekend about the power of God’s word.  It was brought to my attention that 2 Timothy 3:16 states that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  I love the King James translation here because i think some of the other translations water these words down.  It is very important for us to realize that all scripture is profitable for doctrine.  There has been a shift in the church over the last 10 years and that shift has led us to this idea that God is love and the church should be all about love; a shift to a concept that the church needs to be about love and not the difficult details of doctrine.  There are too many confusing things in the scripture to focus on doctrine.  One passage says that we can choose Christ and that following Christ is up to our free will, where another passage says that we are predestined or predetermined to follow Christ and it is not of our choosing to do so.  The scriptures are confusing so let’s focus on what really matters and that is love.  As a result we water down the Gospel and make coming to Christ as easy as saying a little prayer but never repenting never experiencing life change and never making an effort to understand who God is.  I would be the first to tell you that the church should be all about love but that does not mean that we forsake teaching doctrine.  Paul writes first and foremost that scripture is useful for sound doctrine.  We cannot know Christ apart from His Word and we cannot love like Christ unless we know who he is and that comes from sound doctrine.  We push doctrine to the back burner because very few of us want to put in the effort that it takes to really know who God is and to understand what it is that we are truly believing in.  Over the thanksgiving holidays my mother told me that she was attempting to read through the whole Bible in 90 days, immediately I remembered what I had once heard Doug Fields, youth pastor at Saddleback Community Church, say, that one should never attempt to read through the scripture in a set period of time because if you do you are destined to fail and failure means that you will cease reading the word on a consistent basis (now I do not believe that he was saying to never read the Bible, however to not set yourself up for failure).  I do consequently believe that this is a common mentality in today’s church.  I am destined to fail at staying consistent in the Word so why even bother and besides it is not about doctrine it is about love, that is what Jesus was about, loving people.  Do you realize that Jesus spent more of His time trying to correct inappropriate doctrine than anything else that He did with His life.  Every parable he told, every sermon on the mount, every time he fought the Pharisees, it was always about correcting the innacurate doctrine of His day.  This is what Jesus was most about; now along the way he healed the lame, caused the blind to see, and showed compassion to the multitudes, but that was all in route to teaching the people who God really was and expounding to them sound doctrine.  John writes in chapter 8 verse  ³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Knowing truth or sound doctrine will bring you freedom and will give you life; now giving life that was what Jesus was all about.  I do not know how people can claim to know what God wants for their lives or for their churches when they are not spending time in the Word.  You may be different from me but I have never audibly heard God speak to me so apart from His Word how am I to know what God wants for my life.  Well Sean when God wants something from me I can just feel it in my heart…HELLO, Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  My heart is deceitful, it leads me down paths I wish I had never gone, Scripture is God breathed and useful in areas of my life where my heart is not.  I realized once I got home from my parents house over thanksgiving that Doug Fields was wrong, that was just an excuse I was giving because I knew I would never have the discipline to read through the Bible in 90 days, so I determined to make every effort to spend time in the word from cover to cover.  As it stands right now I am on pace to finish in 144 days not 90 but at least it is a start.  A friend of mine Josh Kappes, who is a youth pastor, said that his goal for his youth group was always progress; that every day as a result of his ministry they would be more like Christ.  Progress is not always quantifiable but the end result is always good.  That is the prayer for my life and for yours…progress, that every day I would be more like Christ and that every day you would be more like Christ, and the only way that I know how to do that is to spend time in His God breathed Word.  ”All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  I want to be just like Jesus, I want to be all about knowing who God is and pointing others to Him.  I want to be about sound doctrine and then the out-flowing of my heart will be to love others because I know who God is!

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~ by sm052700 on December 10, 2009.