Acts 11- Yeah but...

When we come to the Bible we generally bring our luggage. We have years of teachings that muddle with the way that we read the text. We neatly categorize teachings into our mental framework and organize texts in such a way that the Bible can at times seem neutered.

We have our favorite proof texts that we base our faith on... They are the ones that we would wear on t-shirts. (if your that kind of "christian") We have the verses that go on our coffee mugs or over our desks on the wall. Those are our favorite. In fact, we even promote favorite verses by asking each other, "what is your 'life-verse' or your 'favorite verse?'" Then there are the texts that get put on our mental shelf called 'I don't understand.' We read something and because it doesn't click right away we don't bother asking any questions of God but would rather quickly store it away so we don't have to think of what it means and the implications of obeying. Lastly, we have verses that we dismiss. They are abrasive and rub us wrong so, because we have been taught to do this, we argue them away. We claim that the message is not for us. We discard God's word on the basis of "culture" or "new covenant" or something like that. We would never tear a page out of the bible but we might mentally take a scalpel and remove parts that we can't seem to easily obey.

When Peter explained his actions in Acts 11 he closes his explanation with this sobering question, "who was I to think that I could oppose God? (vs. 17)" He knew that God was revealing to him a new way to interact with people, a new way to look at Gentiles, and a new way to display love. Who is little old Peter to stand up to God and oppose God's revealed truth.

We as students of the bible need to learn to do this. We need to come to the bible with much prayer. Asking God to strip us of unhelpful biases. Asking Him to rid us of preconceived notions that hinder us from learning something new. We need to be ready to change and we need to be ready to go to a deeper level of understanding and commitment. I love the quote, "we are not trying to master the bible, but rather we are trying to be mastered by it." Our learning should be proportionate to our obeying. We should strive to commit to what we already know. And be open to God's new direction and leading. Who are we to oppose what God wants to teach us today?