Back To the Bible — A LifeWords Devotion

We are so often solemnly urged to go back to the Bible for answers to life questions, and to determine in any debates who is right and who is wrong. It is not always easy to do so. The Bible doesn’t answer all our queries regarding life direction. It is a compass rather than a map.

Do I take this job or that job? Do I join this church or that church? Do I read this book or that book? The Bible gives us broad principles but doesn’t usually give us detailed guidance. God has given us brains and emotions and other people to help us along the way without waiting for some bible text to jump out at us.

And it is interesting that in many contemporary debates on contentious issues, sincere and godly people form different conclusions from Scripture. We must always remember that our own understandings are not necessarily God breathed. The Bible might be God’s infallible communication to us, but it is always interpreted by fallible human beings.

We are to constantly go back to the Bible, but in a spirit of openness and humility. Those who see things differently might have things to teach us, and vice versa. We cling tenaciously to certain received truths and yet remain open to seeing other things differently. Our interpretations may grow and change as we grow and change.

What doesn’t change is the love God has for us, demonstrated in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. That at least is solid ground.

David