Encouragement or Critique ...

Thursday, Oct 4, 2012. Biblical texts can serve quite diverse purposes. Why would you read the verses and stories? What are you looking for? And what is it that the bible wants to give us?

Dose of restorative agent …

Many people use the bible as a kind of restorative agent. The different parts are cut into verses, the verses are put into daily reading books and given out to people in little doses. Day by day just one verse to strengthen us, to help us, to encourage us.

And in fact, the bible can encourage us. When you are a believer, then single verses can help you a lot. They stay in your mind. You associate whole passages and further details. You have heard sermons about the topic, and the verse helps you to stay on track for some time and not get distracted from the good targets which God has given to us.

But one also needs to give out a sincere warning! The bible cannot just be understood by listening to single verses again and again. You are in danger to miss the main points when you just misuse it as a personal drug. The bible wants to be such a drug, yes, but it does not just want to deafen the pain. It wants to heal. It wants to get to the deeper points of our life. It wants to transform us into a new creation! It is much more than a restorative agent. You need to get to a sincere understanding.

Critique and New Life …

People who are sincere Christians are characterized by special features. The main feature is that they know: they are lost without the saving grace of God through Jesus. Without his justice, we are not just, we are not good and we do not have a future. But in him and with him we are fully justified, we are set to be good and we do have an eternal future. Sincere Christians do not have a problem with criticism. They are open for critique, since they have accepted the full critique which God gives to us.

To be open about your own failures is part of this story. New life comes from the full openness, which we have before the Lord. He know everything. He knows where we fail. He knows where we win. He knows our every thought, our feelings, our hopes, desires and our despair. And he still fully accepts us in Jesus. He loves us and cares for us. Thus, Christianity opens the way to criticism, to acceptance which is not only built on achievement. We are something, because he loves us, he has created us and chosen us to be with him.

Reading the bible also means that we are led to his view, that we are led to his understanding. It is not just strengthening verses, it is transforming power which creates new life in us and with us. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts