No one does everything that the Bible commands them to do.聽This has nothing to do with being sinful (though, of course, our sinfulness does cause us to fall short at times), rather it has to do with how we interact with scripture.
For example, Romans 16:16 says, 鈥淕reet one another with a holy kiss.鈥� I do not know anyone who does this.聽In fact, in our day and age, uninvited kissing may get you charged with harassment.聽Therefore, we have changed this command so that it includes a 鈥渉oly handshake.鈥�
Sometimes we follow scriptural examples to the letter of the law and other times we ignore them completely.聽For example, in Matthew 26, Jesus starts what we call 鈥淭he Lord鈥檚 Supper.鈥澛�
He takes bread, blesses it and tells his followers to remember his body that was to be sacrificed on the cross (verse 26).聽Then he takes a cup, blesses it and tells the disciples to drink it and remember his blood (verse 27).聽In some form or another, most Christians take those examples seriously and continue to follow them to this day.聽
However, the end of that paragraph says, 鈥淲hen they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives鈥� (verse 30).聽Many churches sing a hymn after the Lord鈥檚 table, but no one suggests that we must then fly to Jerusalem and climb the Mount of Olives.聽We completely ignore that part of the example.
Of course, those are silly examples but they make the point that scripture is not always as 鈥渃ut and dried鈥� as we would like it to be.聽However, that is a good thing. Interacting with God鈥檚 word ought to make us to think and ask questions like, 鈥淗ow does this apply today?鈥澛� or, 鈥淲hat does this verse require me to do?鈥� 聽
Scripture comes alive, not when we read it, but when we wrestle with it.
As this new year begins, may I encourage you to dig into the word of God. It may not always be easy, but I promise that your effort will be rewarded.
鈥淒o your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth鈥� (2 Timothy 2:15).
