Shaped by Scripture

We are wrapping up our consideration of the things which shape our beliefs and values. I called them spheres — areas or domains which shape us. Some are entrenched and immovable, like tradition and culture. Others are immediate and personal, like philosophy and experience. Others shape how we think: smart phones, technology, and social media. All of these come together to affect what we think, what we believe, and what we love and hate. They can influence us for good or for evil. They are all, as it were, in a tug-of-war for our beliefs.

Scripture stands above them all as the ultimate authority. It is the norma normans non normata — the norm of norms which cannot be normed. Since it is God’s word, it carries His authority as creator, sustainer, ruler, and judge of all things.

Scripture’s superiority is not merely a religious claim, nor spiritual optimism. We recognize its authority for several good reasons:

• It comes from a superior source. Scripture was written by God (2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Pet. 1:21). All other spheres rely on human reason or experience.
• It is objectively true. Experience, tradition, culture, and philosophy are subjective. They depend on human senses and thinking and values and structures, which are all malleable. They change between generations and between cultures. Scripture, however, remains unchanged. It is always true.
• It is sufficient. In it, God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. Other spheres are deficient or lopsided, but Scripture is balanced and whole. It alone gives us a holistic framework for life.
• It is a sure guide. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It can be trusted to lead us toward what is true, good, and beautiful. Tradition stagnates. Philosophy misleads. Experience fools us. Culture drifts. But Scripture always guides us toward what is right and true.

Scripture regulates all the other epistemological spheres because it is the ultimate authority. Scripture is our touchstone for all issues of truth. This affects how much prominence we give to everything else. Every other sphere is subordinate to Scripture.

It also norms other spheres because it is the only thing we can trust absolutely. It always teaches the truth. When spheres teach things which disagree with each other (e.g. historical science vs. biblical history, secular psychology vs. biblical anthropology, human philosophy vs. biblical truth), Scripture can always be trusted as true.

Third, it orients other spheres by helping us see their relevance in relationship to God’s word. Each sphere has a rightful place as an influence on our beliefs and our values. Scripture gives us a framework to appreciate the contributions of tradition, culture, philosophy, and experience. Their value is seen in its relationship to Scripture.

How should we relate to Scripture?

If Scripture is our ultimate epistemology — our final and supreme source of truth — how should we live so we understand it and are being shaped by it?

Submit to Scripture as the written word of our Lord. The most important thing to remember as we read Scripture is that the words we are reading are from God. He spoke them and therefore they carry His authority. If we disagree with Aristotle, we disagree with a mere man. If we ignore our tradition, we ignore merely human constructs. But if we disagree with Scripture, we disagree with the sovereign, omnipotent Lord of Creation.

We need to read Scripture with our knees bent and heads bowed — totally submitted to God’s words. We are as the apostle Paul, who described himself as the doulos (bond-servant or bond-slave) of Christ. If Christ is our Lord, we will show that by putting ourselves under His will as revealed in the Bible.

Study Scripture to know what it says. Read it. Scripture helps us understand reality. It can help us in every kind of situation — whether at work, at home, in the church, in our communities, or in our personal lives. But it will only help us if we read it. The Bible is not merely a book to dust off when we need answers to difficult questions; it is a place to live. We should be steeped in biblical truth so we understand the world in biblical categories. What do you think about purpose? About identity? About value? About our goals in everything we do? We can only think biblically if we read the Bible. Read prayerfully. Read deeply. Read often. 

As you read the Bible, don’t settle for surface-level readings. Ask good questions and dig for answers. Be willing to do mental work. Effort and grace are not opposites in Christian discipleship. When we pit intellectual discipline against dynamic spiritually, we bifurcate things which actually belong together. Spiritual life results from diligent study, and spiritual blessing produces increased knowledge. It’s in study that we become workers approved unto God, rightly dividing His word. And it’s a mark of true spirituality to grow in the knowledge of Christ. 

Allow Scripture to shape you. Too many people use Scripture to legitimize their views rather than reading it as an authority which shapes their views. They come to Scripture to find support for their beliefs, not to have their beliefs shaped by Scripture. Scripture is an auxiliary witness which can be called to support them, not an ultimate authority which defines what they must believe.

These two approaches are sometimes called exegesis and eisegesis. The former approach reads meaning out of the text (what did God mean to say?) while the latter reads meaning into the text (how does it support my preconceived beliefs?). Quite simply, this second approach leads us to search Scripture looking for passages which corroborate our ideas — what we want to believe or don’t want to believe. The author’s intended meaning is downplayed or dismissed in favor of the reader’s preconceptions.

The real Christian approach asks, what did God mean to say? The words, grammar, and syntax, understood in their original context, determine the meaning of the passage. Exegesis avoids bringing unbiblical assumptions into the text but instead allows the text to define its own meaning. What the Bible means by “God is love” must be determined by the way Scripture as a whole describes and defines love — and not by what goes through a 21st-century Westerner’s mind when he or she hears the word “love”.

In the one approach we shape Scripture, and in the other Scripture shapes us. In the one we are always adjusting the meaning of Scripture to fit what we want to believe, and in the other we allow Scripture to shape us.

A simple thought experiment may help you recognize whether this applies to you. Ask yourself, “When was the last time I allowed Scripture to change my mind?” If you haven’t had to adjust your views because of what you’ve seen in the Bible, you probably are not reading your Bible at all, or you aren’t submitted to it as your ultimate authority.

It’s one thing to profess that Scripture shapes your beliefs; it is another to actually be shaped by it. Are you allowing it to form your understandings of Christian doctrine — and all of life? How do you think about work? About relationships? About suffering? About treasure and wealth? About true spirituality? About joy? About marriage? About sex? About time? About eternity? Do you know how to see the world the way God sees it? This only happens when you are saturated in Scripture. As we are shaped by God’s word, we will begin to see reality according to His perspective — that is, the world as it actually is.

While all the spheres we’ve discussed in the series can be good and helpful, Scripture is the only one that is thoroughly trustworthy and true. It alone gives us God’s words, and it alone speaks with His authority. It is the sure rock we can build our lives on.

So, what are you standing on?