JESUS BE THE CENTER OF IT ALL
C.S. Lewis is quoted quite a bit in this little blog. He was hugely influential in his time and his writings continue to resonate today. He was a medieval scholar who wrote incredible works on the literature of that time, but most people know him for his writings in the realm of apologetics. What was it that made his work so relevant? In Mere Christianity, he constantly points to Christ. Regardless of differences, people of every denomination could read what he wrote and agree with it because of this. Today we are experiencing yet another “sorting” in the church because of division. Perhaps this is why his words so often come back to me, as they did while listening to the sermon this past week.
You’ve heard it said, “Don’t judge God by His people.” As Pastor Harry talked about recently, the church is full of hypocrisy. The idea is that the bad things God’s people engage in are in no way an indicator of what He Himself is like. How we judge Scripture also has a huge bearing on how we view God. In a way, we could apply this little maxim to interpretations of Scripture: “Don’t judge God by certain interpretations.”
As Pastor Mark pointed out this past Sunday, there are a wide variety of hermeneutical tools for interpreting the Bible. Unfortunately for us, there is no verse that tells us which one is the correct one to use. This leads to yet more varieties of interpretations. However, it does say that the Bible is “...God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16) What does this mean in practical application?
This is where Lewis comes in. Whether or not you read that verse to mean that every verse in the Bible is true literally or literarily (as Pastor Mark demarcated Sunday), the one thing we can ALL agree on, regardless of hermeneutical tools or interpretations, is that the Scriptures point to Christ, and as such, they are authoritative. This is the rock on which we stand. He is the center of it all.