Are you like me? Have you ever wondered why scripture is controversial? I think the reality is that the words aren't what is controversial but our attitudes toward the words are. If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, there is no controversy over the words. The controversy is in our own mind and heart and how we interject our feelings into the text. Some push to make the Word say more than it actually is saying. Others soften it to say less than it actually is saying. Both are dangerous. And there are several reasons why we do this which are dangerous as well.
Perhaps we've forgotten that it is "God's Word." Think about that, "God's Word." Maybe we have heard that phrase so much we don't realize what it means anymore. It isn't the president's word or the findings of science, etc. It is the Word of the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, the Creator of the universe! It doesn't need my explanation or commentary.
Perhaps we don't care. Maybe we have joined a growing crowd in this one nation under God that believes God's Word no longer applies, that it isn't relevant in this 21st century.
Or worse, perhaps we only believe that it just doesn't apply to us, that God's Word is only a suggestion, that we know best what works for our individual lives or that we don't need God's instruction. But who could give better instruction than the One who created us, knows our intricate workings, feelings and fears, and sees the future of every person on the planet?
Again, the controversy is not in the Word of God but in our attitude toward His Word. If the Bible is what it says it is, the Word of God, then it should be taken at face value. If you need a seminary degree to understand it then most people in the world are without hope of ever knowing God. I'm a preacher and I believe in preaching. It is important to the life of believers and the life of a local church. But preaching is not trying to share hidden truth that no one else has seen. If the Bible needs my explanation before anyone can fully understand it, then it isn't God's Word. Preaching is important. But God's Word is fully capable of standing on its own, and does so quite well.
But yes, scripture has become a controversial subject, all scripture, not just the few verses that you struggle with. Because most people today argue with any and all of it. But our attitudes toward God's Word doesn't change its origin, it's validity or its power one iota. Thank God. If my attitude or argument could change what God meant, then we would have nothing in the Bible except what every other book in the world is: the thoughts, knowledge, emotions, ideas, imaginations, fears, doubts and errors of sinful mankind. And we present-day Christians, like Paul, would be most miserable and without hope!
Instead of trying to make the Word of God fit us we should be working to fit it. Instead of looking for license we should be looking for liberty. Instead of looking for the holy hammer to point out someone's inadequacies we should be pursuing the same truth David requested, to "see if there be any wicked way in me." Instead of looking for the loophole explanation, Christians should be looking for the strength and power that sets people free from their sin and enables them to live victorious lives.
That's the purpose of the passage from Ephesians 5 that I posted a couple days ago - not my purpose, the Word's purpose. Please note that I did not post just one verse but we get hung up on verse 18 and miss the greater message. I think Ephesians 5 is straightforward, even verse 18. Some wish it had simply said "don't drink." But it doesn't say that. Yet it says so much more and gives so much more direction than just saying "abstain." This chapter is going to the root of why we often do things, how it is so easy to become focused on the wrong thing and how we easily become entangled in our own ways instead of becoming empowered through His ways.
While commenting on the same passage, I believe Geoffrey J. Paxton says it well and concisely: "the exhortation is (negatively) to not occupy themselves with that which will lessen their hold on the way of truth, but (positively) to occupy themselves with that which will fix their grasp on Christ and His kingdom."
I challenge you to read that again and again and listen to what he is saying for that is truth for everything in our lives.
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