Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I like this recent line of reasoning. There is so much that is just details. But not the core. And it is fairly clear that many of the details are not entirely important for our daily living if we have managed to get the core down correctly.
In other words, if you truly love God and your neighbor, you are not likely to need a correcting word from someone like Paul. You don't need to have someone provide a dissertation on the flesh v the spirit (parts of Romans).
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There are possibly two related aspects here. One might be what
OBW called "this recent line of reasoning", in which we see that becoming overly focused on details can distract us from the simple (but spiritually deep) core message of God's love for us all, reaching us in His Son Christ Jesus. For example, if the "high peak teachings" have caused us to care more for "the feeling in the Body" than for loving our neighbor, then I argue that we have been misled.
Secondly, and related, is my original point regarding our attention to God's Holy Word. Perhaps our teachings have led us to conclude that some scriptures are actually untrustworthy as a divinely inspired record, but rather are the opinions of fallen men. And what if a section of scripture that our teachings have little regard for, like the Psalms, is heavily cited in the NT as revealing Christ, with no countervailing NT 'warning' telling us to avoid its supposedly 'natural' parts? Again I would argue that our teachings have led us astray.
Psalm 119 says "The unfolding of your words emits light"; if, for example, Psalm 3 unfolds before me, with "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the L
ORD sustained me" shining light onto gospel verses like "I have the power to lay My life down, and the power to raise it up again", then what teaching should cause me to ignore that light? What teaching could cause me to disregard the scriptures thus?
And I don't think it's coincidental that the same teaching, encouraging our disrespect for the Word, also trained us to disregard our fellows. Because the motive power that caused Jesus to lay His life down was divinely revealed as God's love toward us: "There is no greater love than this, than should a man lay down his life for his friends." Our unalloyed attention to and appreciation for God's Word should result in an increasing love towards our neighbors, and any teaching that distracts us from such a path should be called out.