I love the Bible. All believers do. I love to read it and study it. I haven't preached much, but the times when I have were exhilerating. I love to look into its formation and canon and wish I had the time, training, and resources necessary to go into the more complex questions of text and translation.
The biblical and ecclesiastical languages fascinate me too. I wish I had taken more Greek in college. I wish I was more proficient in Hebrew and I wish I could study Aramaic too. While I'm at it, I wish I could learn Latin also and read from the Vulgate!
Because I love the Bible so much, it frustrates me when I see the way it is often treated with glib disregard for its meaning and context. I hate it when it is treated functionally like it's not relevant to the problems at hand as if the writers of the Scripture didn't face the problems we face and as if God didn't address those issues.
But there's one way the Bible is often misused that is perhaps the worst of all because it is so subtle as to not always be recognizable. I refer to what can be called the "canon within the canon". That is the practice of pitting one part of Scripture against another as if the favored section is more relevant, or more inspired, or "for today".
I grew up within church contexts that were solidly evangelical and usually dispensational. Almost every pastor that I knew, although they were always good men of God, would tell you that you can't get doctrine or practice for the church from the Gospels or Acts as that era was for Israel, not the Church. Another common attitude was that the Gospels and Acts are narrative in nature, while the epistles (particularly of Paul) give us the doctrine of the church. The Gospels and Acts described a "transitional period" and are "descriptive and not prescriptive".
Interestingly, as I became more charismatic and entered that context, I found exactly the same phenomenon, albeit from the opposite end. There was such a slavish emphasis on the Gospels and Acts that the epistles (again, particularly of Paul) were basically ignored. Now no one would outright say that the Gospels are more inspired, but one was left to wonder why we never followed the example of Pauline churches who excommunicated a man who slept with his stepmother (in order to lead to his repentance), but rather juxtaposed that with Jesus who "hung out" with sinners (for exactly the same reason: to call them to repentance) as if there is some disconnect between Jesus and His hand-picked apostle to the gentiles. At least the dispensationalists could give you a coherent (albeit wrong) reason for their carving up of the Bible like a Thanksgiving turkey!
Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, what is the positive alternative? Well for starters, I would say that more churches should read, hear, teach, preach, and practice the entire Bible and not only the portions we like or are comfortable with. This by the way includes the Old Testament. Now certainly we must understand how the Bible fits together and that many commands and practices in the Old Testament don't directly apply today (like not wearing polyester, or sacrificing a lamb or a goat). Personally, I'm glad I don't have to travel to Jerusalem three times a year. But the Old Testament is just as much a part of our Christian heritage as the New. What does Jesus say? "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17 NKJV). Or how about Paul (I am being a little tongue in cheek here)? For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4 NKJV).
But more than that, it is important also to see that Scripture interprets Scripture. While it is certain that we can learn important things from a single text, it is not true that any one text should be divorced from what the rest of the Bible teaches. Scripture is a whole and should be interpreted as such.
One of the most important needs of the hour, as in times past, is faithful men who will read, study, teach, preach, and live out the entire message of the Bible. I do not pretend that such men are not already among us, but I pray for even more men who will heed Paul's charge to Timothy: "Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
