We live in an age where there is an abundance of religious knowledge. The Bible once had to be slowly copied by hand by a trained expert, which limited the amount of copies available. One Bible had to be shared by an entire church and often their bible only contained few of the 66 books we have today. Most of the congregation would be illiterate and could only learn by having a scribe or priest read out loud during the meeting. Everything is so different today. Each person can easily get their own Bible and even for someone with no money many churches would be happy to offer a free one. Not only can each person read their own printed Bible, there are many free Bible apps so that you can read the Bible anywhere, even while waiting in line, without needing to even carry a copy around.
Habakkuk 2:14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”
Habakkuk’s word must have seemed far-fetched to the original listeners. Who could imagine the religion of the small nation of Israel would spread worldwide and be translated into every language. Yet here we are, the prophecy came true and the knowledge of the Lord has truly spread worldwide.
Unfortunately, this knowledge has not always translated into action.
James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pharisees were a group who were expert “hearers” of the word as they would memorize lengthy portions of the Old Testament. Jesus had to expose how their heart was not in it. Their Bible study was based in pride. Showing off the knowledge to each other without making any application of it.
Bible villains and character mistakes
One reason we sometimes miss applying what is in the word is that we may read scripture with a mindset that we would not make the same mistake as the Bible character. For example, saying it would be so easy to Adam to resist eating the apple. By doing this we miss the main point, that each character reflects a weakness common to humans in general.
God commanded Saul to slaughter all the animals plundered from the Amalekites. When Saul did not enforce this command from God but allowed the people to carry off the spoils we often just dismiss him as a foolish person who disobeyed God. The more powerful way of reading scripture however is to see the Saul within you. It would have been very unpopular for Saul to tell the starving peasants that they could not consume the captured cattle. Do you always make the choice for God when it will be unpopular with your friends and environment? There is a Saul within each one of us that wants to compromise God's instructions to be popular with the people around us.
The same applies to the story of David and Bathsheba. We often say “I would never commit murder or adultery,” but fail to see that David most likely also had these same thoughts. He thought he was just entertaining a minor sin in lusting and not hurting anyone by doing it. Just as David's small sin became big, we have to identify with the bad of the characters and examine which openings to evil we dismiss as “minor” sin and allow to enter. Neither Saul nor David was any more foolish than the rest of us in their mistakes and sins.
When Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, don't just join in mentally with a contemptuous attitude towards them wondering how the Pharisees could be so dumb. Look for the Pharisee within yourself and see how easy it is to reject the new things God is doing when embraced in the comfort of the traditions of old. How easy it is to show religion externally while making godless and selfish decisions in private.
The mistakes Bible characters should cause is to reflect on how easy it is to make those same mistakes today in your life. Let's not identify with only the good groups, we have to see the potential for the villain within us as well.
1 Corinthians 11:31 “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged”
Matthew 7:3 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pharisees were quick to look externally and judge others but they failed to seriously look within to discover and repent of their own sins inside
Knowledge does not bring salvation. That was the error of the Gnostics, the main false sect that threatened to split early Christianity apart. Their name is derived from “gnosis” which is the Greek word meaning “knowledge.” This group believed that knowledge alone of the word and teachings was the path to salvation. This was a more acceptable version of Christianity to the Greeks who loved knowledge, but it was a corruption of the gospel. Repentance from sin was not made a priority at all. This version of Christianity died out because it led to a powerless gospel with no obligation to build anything, help anyone, or change one’s life. Knowing things in the head only increases pride if the teachings are not put into practice. Even the mainstream church through the centuries fell into the trap of hair splitting on the meaning of esoteric doctrines rather than on living the heart of the gospel. In 1058AD the church split into Eastern and Western factions over a very minor philosophical disagreement, whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from both the Father and Son. Remember, on many of these obscure questions God is fine with the answer “I don’t know.” In the judgment he will look at the genuineness of our life and faith, not whether we have studied every doctrine to perfection.
1 Corinthians 8:1 “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.”
In Matthew 13 Christ teaches the parable of the sower. This is a farmer whose seed falls into four types of land. Only one of the four areas mentioned is fertile. Even within this fertile section however, only some bear fruit 100-fold (100%) while the rest only bear fruit 30 or 60-fold. This is a great example of how even when we understand and accept something we learn in the Bible, it often only bears limited fruit and not the fullness intended. The only way we can bring the word to bear one hundredfold fruit is to always reflect on how to put it into practice while reading. Not just seeing it as a story far away that has no current application. The Bible is a living book that was written to speak to every person and age which would come to exist.
In Christ’s message on the foundation he likens one who only listens to the word as a foolish man who builds his house on sand which is easily washed away. The one who puts the message into practice rather than just listening is the one who builds a foundation on the solid rock which will not be washed away:
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~