Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
Preachers, teachers and students diligently studying the word to understand it and prepare lessons to teach it, and even people learning in order to do it, need to be on guard that they do not become experts in the Word without coming to know its Author. The difference is not known by some esoteric emotion, but discerned by analyzing Jesus' rebukes of the Pharisees.
One illustration that strikes particularly close to home, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone." (Matt 23:23). We blithely point out the necessity of being careful to do the small things and then often barely mention justice, mercy and faith. We must remember that the Pharisees could explain every nuance of the meanings of those words and cite every occurrence of each in the scriptures. They could preach sermons on each subject. But, Jesus says, they were not practicing what they knew.
The question is not whether, but where are we doing the same? We can preach sermons on pattern and the sin of varying from it, we can certify from clear citations all the "acts of worship" (in quotes because that phrase is used nowhere in scripture)—consider the following passages where men worshipped without or separate from any act: 1Sam 1:28, 12:20, 2Chron 7:3,20:18-30, 12:20). Are we then doing the right things diligently without being right?
I spent fifty years learning the Bible, preaching sermons, teaching classes, analyzing passages and realize that I knew much but often missed the point—just as the Pharisees. The Bible is not a message of do's and don'ts, it is a love letter from God. He says, "This is who I am and what I am, please like me." The commandments are designed to conform us to His character, to his revealed image.
The Pharisees prove that it is possible to know everything about God and not know God. Jesus warns us in the harshest terms not to fall into the same trap.
The purpose of all Bible study, preaching, and teaching should be to know God.
"Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. " (Mark 12:29-30).
Keith Ward
Preachers, teachers and students diligently studying the word to understand it and prepare lessons to teach it, and even people learning in order to do it, need to be on guard that they do not become experts in the Word without coming to know its Author. The difference is not known by some esoteric emotion, but discerned by analyzing Jesus' rebukes of the Pharisees.
One illustration that strikes particularly close to home, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone." (Matt 23:23). We blithely point out the necessity of being careful to do the small things and then often barely mention justice, mercy and faith. We must remember that the Pharisees could explain every nuance of the meanings of those words and cite every occurrence of each in the scriptures. They could preach sermons on each subject. But, Jesus says, they were not practicing what they knew.
The question is not whether, but where are we doing the same? We can preach sermons on pattern and the sin of varying from it, we can certify from clear citations all the "acts of worship" (in quotes because that phrase is used nowhere in scripture)—consider the following passages where men worshipped without or separate from any act: 1Sam 1:28, 12:20, 2Chron 7:3,20:18-30, 12:20). Are we then doing the right things diligently without being right?
I spent fifty years learning the Bible, preaching sermons, teaching classes, analyzing passages and realize that I knew much but often missed the point—just as the Pharisees. The Bible is not a message of do's and don'ts, it is a love letter from God. He says, "This is who I am and what I am, please like me." The commandments are designed to conform us to His character, to his revealed image.
The Pharisees prove that it is possible to know everything about God and not know God. Jesus warns us in the harshest terms not to fall into the same trap.
The purpose of all Bible study, preaching, and teaching should be to know God.
"Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. " (Mark 12:29-30).
Keith Ward
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