What if I disagree with parts of the Bible?

When I read the Bible and disagree with something, I am the one that has to change.  I can’t say that I live by the Bible if I choose only pieces of the Bible to live by.  That would make me a hypocrite.  I don’t want to be one of those.  Sure I stop at McDonald’s for breakfast after my morning workout occasionally, but you know what I mean.  I can’t skip parts of the Bible because I think they are outdated, misapplied by others, foolish, or wrong.  I have to adjust my thinking, morality, and personal ethics and values around whatever is written in that book.  That’s how I live my Christian faith.  It’s not easy.  There are several scriptures in the Bible that I, honestly, wish were not there.  I don’t understand them and some seem downright mean.  However, who am I to go against a belief system that I have chosen to accept in faith?  I must live by it.
I was recently reading “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Rich Stearns.  He said something very familiar.

“When my friend Jim Wallis was a seminary student atTrinity Evangelical Divinity School outside of Chicago, he and some of his classmates did a little experiment.  They went through all 66 books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice, and oppression.  Then, one of Jim’s fellow students took a pair of scissors and physically cut every one of those verses out of the Bible.  The result was a volume in tatters that barely held together.  Beginning with the Mosaic books, through the books of history, the Psalms and Proverbs, and the Major and Minor Prophets, to the four Gospels, the book of Acts, the Epistles and into Revelation, so central were these themes to Scripture that the resulting Bible was in shambles. (According to The poverty and Justice Bible, there are almost 2,000 verses in Scripture that deal with poverty and justice.) When Jim would speak on these issues, he would hold his ragged book in the air and proclaim,‘Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible; it is full of holes. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the Scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical texts that we just ignore.’ Jim’s Bible was literally full of holes.”  (pp. 23-24)


I agree 100% with his assessment and application.  I believe it can also work in my context.  We cannot “cut out” any verses in our Bibles and still claim to live by the Bible.  No matter how hard it might be to have to change, live counter culturally, or live with trust that God has put it there for our own good and the good of humanity.

Tim Boyd
Lead Pastor, Westside Christian Church - Bradenton, FL

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