We Believe in the Authority of Scripture

We Believe in the Authority of Scripture

 

Many Christians believe in the authority of Scripture.  We believe that the Bible is God’s Word and we believe we can stand on it. We rely on God’s faithfulness that is displayed through Scripture.  The Bible is our spiritual food – our precious faith grows and is nourished by hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) And we discover that standing on – or believing the Word of God - brings us a great deal of comfort and strength.  

 

We believe we should stand up for what the Bible commands is right and true.  We believe we should be strong and not compromise when God’s laws are blatantly broken or disregarded. We believe we should confront sin but always do it with love. We believe we should follow Christ - who is the One who stood up against sin – the religious leaders’ sin of hypocrisy. Which cost Him His life.

 

Jesus warned us that accepting His invitation to follow Him would lead us eventually to resistance, rejection and persecution.  And sometimes death.  Jesus promised that through Christians who are willing to endure unjust suffering in His Name, He will bring in the kingdom of God on earth.  But even though following Christ will bring us peace and joy, it can also bring us danger, mistreatment and suffering.  We are called to “take up our cross” and follow Jesus.  (Matthew 16:24) And the cross is a symbol of death. 

 

Sometimes followers of Christ are persecuted because they believe that if the Bible says that something is a sin then it really is a sin. Of course, all sinners are welcome in the assembly of believers – the church - since we are all sinners and Christ died for all sinners. We all come humbly to Christ to have Him forgive our sin.  But Scripture says we should want to be forgiven and we should confess that our sin is sin. (1 John 1:9)

 

If we proudly insist that our sin isn’t sin, when the Bible says that it is, if we call our sin good when Scripture declares that it is not good, then I believe our fellow Christians are called to confront us in love. We are to love our fellow Christians who insist that their sin is good, and the Bible is wrong about calling it sin.  We are to sincerely love these Christians, because we are sinners too.  Their sins are no worse than ours. But also, we should lovingly confront them, and not accept their sin, because we love these ones and want the best for them. – and for the Church.  And, because we love Christ.  

The Bible says we should: “Speak the truth in love”. (Ephesians 4:15) When our children misbehave, we correct them because we love them, and we want what is best for them.  Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross put it like this: “Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love.  And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth.”  Niceness masquerades as love, but it is exposed as a fraud if it conceals the truth in the process.  Jesus wasn’t always “nice”  to the Pharisees or to blatant sinners and we are to follow His example.    

 

All of us Christians are constantly in need of repenting of sins. But the world seems to define a “Christian” as a person who is “nice”. A person who never offends, is broad minded, always accommodating sin and refusing to believe Scripture passages when they are inconvenient to believe.  And when we Christians don’t fit in with that nicey-nice worldly model, then we are persecuted.  Christ warned us that we are not of this world and that if we follow Him, we will not fit into this world.  (1 John 14-16, John 15:19 and James 4:4)    

 

Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a long stream of rebukes for misdeeds ranging from jealousy and quarreling to incest, sexual immorality, idolatry, being judgmental, drunkenness and mishandling spiritual gifts.  Paul didn’t put up with the sins of the Christians who lived in Corinth!  Because Paul loved these Christians so much, he prayed for them and confronted them, insisting that they repent of their sins. God was able to use Paul to bring Christianity to the Gentiles and to change the world because Paul was willing to be unpopular and insist that God’s Word be obeyed.  And Paul was persecuted and martyred because he stood up for Christ.

 

I mentioned to my Sunday School class one Sunday that we Christians are given so much when we accept Christ as our Savior.  Along with salvation, we are given the peace and joy of Christ.  Immediately a member of our class was angry with me.  She said that I was saying that people who believe in Christ (Christians) have something that Moslems or Buddhists don’t have.  She found that very offensive that I thought I had the right Way, the only Way through Christ. Did I think I was better than others? 

 

Our Christian faith does proclaim that Christ is the only Way.  That He saves us - gives us salvation.  We do believe that we have something that other faiths lack.  We have a risen Savior who died for us. And lives for us. But it is true. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Christians are persecuted.  Because we are saying that Christ is the only Way.  That He is the Truth and the Life. We teach this because this is what the Bible teaches.  And we believe in the authority of the Bible.

  We are persecuted for not having a “lukewarm” faith!  But our Christian faith should never be “lukewarm”.If it is God will spit us out of His mouth. (Revelations 3:16)  Our Christian faith should always be hot!