Week 4
Discipline: SCRIPTURE
Word:
“Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments”
Psalm 119:1-6
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
Matthew 7:24-27
Reflection: Obedience
The authority of scripture is an often debated issue among theologians, Biblical Scholars, and Christians of differing (conservative vs. liberal) interpretive positions. It is for me a futile and nonproductive debate, because the argument over the authority of scripture always lies within the individual who must choose to what degree we will submit ourselves to scripture and walk in obedience to God through scripture’s revelation. Certainly if we are going to submit ourselves to scripture as authority and walk in obedience to God’s direction through it, we must do careful interpretive work. To take a fundamentalist “bumper sticker” view of scripture (“God said it; I believe it; that does it!) is dangerous at best. After all, are we really to “cut off our hand or gouge out our eye if they cause us to sin”? Or should we obediently “hate our mother and father” if we are to follow Jesus? However, as disciples, the metaphorical, allegorical, and spiritualized parts of scripture do not excuse us from walking in obedience to God’s direction as revealed in the Word. Matthew ends the Sermon on the Mount with Jesus admonition that it is a foolish person who hears the word and knows the life and direction it calls us to and yet refuses to do it. That he says is a recipe for disaster in life. Remember how often that Jesus required an act of obedience as a prerequisite for receiving a blessing (the blind man who had to go wash in the pool or the lepers who had to go show themselves to the priest to receive their healing), or for continuing in one (the blind man healed and the woman caught in adultery that Jesus warned to go and “sin no more”).
It is important to note that obedience to the Word, like the disciples’ submission to the authority of Jesus is a decision that really must come prior to not after hearing. Many who followed Jesus without first making that decision, turned back when his teaching got difficult (John 6:60-69). In fact, I am convinced that the decision to walk in obedience is the key to God opening scripture up to us as a means through we God speaks to us. After all, why would we bother giving direction to our children that they could not or that we didn’t expect them to follow?
Practice: Spend some time searching your life this week for areas that you know you walking in disobedience to God’s direction revealed in scripture. Make a decision to begin to walk in obedience to one specific thing you can identify.
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