The Awkwardness of the Bible

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. - 2 Timothy 3:16

Yesterday we thought about the tricky question: What do we do with bible passages where God commands violence?

Today we want to think more on these sorts of questions. If this awkward book that makes us question and think actually contains the Word of God, can we trust that God will help us find truth as we listen to it?

Perhaps the greatest invitation to a view of the Bible that includes all the inconsistencies and humanity of the authors is how it invites us to look at ourselves and our own journey - seeing ourselves in new ways on every page. Instead of a closed rule book, it can become an open journal - keen insight on how God’s people have told the story of their relationship with God. And since that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, it becomes even more helpful.

Take some time to ponder these insightful words from a bible scholar who has done a lot of this wrestling. Ask God to speak to you today about your relationship to the Bible.

What if the Bible is just fine the way it is? What if it doesn’t need to be protected from itself? What if it doesn’t need to be bathed and perfumed before going out in public? And what if God is actually fine with the Bible just as it is without needing anyone to stand guard over it? Not the well-behaved-everything-is-in-order version we create, but the messy, troubling, weird, and ancient Bible that we actually have? Maybe this Bible has something to show us about our own sacred journey of faith, and maybe God wants us to wander off the beach blanket to discover what that is. Sweating bullets to line up the Bible with our exhausting expectations, to make the Bible something it’s not meant to be, isn’t a pious act of faith, even if it looks that way on the surface. It’s actually thinly masked fear of losing control and certainty, a mirror of an inner disquiet, a warning signal that deep down we do not really trust God at all. - Pete Enns, The Bible Tells Me So