The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

Thomas Jefferson cut out sections of the Bible that he didn't agree with. The result is the Jefferson Bible, which omits the resurrection, Jesus' divinity, and other concepts many Christians hold as core beliefs of Christianity. He wanted to boil the Gospel message down to Jesus' teachings but, while a book on the teachings of Jesus would certainly have value, dismissing the rest of the life of Jesus and who He really was corrupts the message.

Yet I believe we often do the same thing in reverse. We accept Jesus' divinity and resurrection, at least on the surface, but not His teachings. In so doing, we indirectly call into question His divinity because if we believed with all our hearts that He was God and truly wanted the best for us, would we not listen? We read Scripture about loving our neighbor as ourselves and agree with it, then we go out and call someone a moron for cutting us off in traffic or judge someone based on their clothes or haircut or job. We listen to the story about the good Samaritan and then choose to sleep in on Saturday rather than distribute food to the poor. We are humbled when we remember how much we've been forgiven of, yet we harbor grudges against those who have abused our trust.

In my book on confidence, I wrote that it was not meant to be taken as a buffet of advice, where you select the two or three morsels that make the most sense to you and disregard the rest, but that it was meant to be taken as a whole. The same holds true of the Gospel message. You cannot take just the parts that you would agree with even if you weren't a Christian and claim the rest are only for that time and culture or that they somehow don't apply to you.

One note needs to be made here: I'm not suggesting we go back to Leviticus and never touch pigs and stone people who wear clothes made of different materials. We are no longer under the old law and the point of the law was never that we had to keep it to be holy; it was that no one could possibly keep it and so we needed a Savior. We are, however, to abide by the teachings of Jesus, not that we may enter into heaven, for that is based on grace and faith, not works, but that we may please Him and that our obedience will help us grow as Christians.

The same messages of loving your enemies, forgiveness, giving freely to those who ask, abstinence until marriage, submission to husbands, putting your wife's needs before your own (the Scripture reads "as Christ gave himself to the church" after all), and always being ready with a reason for your hope all still apply. If you haven't lived up to these, this is not judgment or condemnation. I haven't lived up to them, either. No Christian ever has perfectly. What it is is an exhortation to not dismiss parts of the Bible you find inconvenient or that mess up your fun. It is an encouragement to accept all of the truth of the Gospel because only when all of the truth is accepted is all of God accepted. He is love, but He is also the ultimate truth, and you cannot know Him the way He wishes you to if you reject whichever of His words that get in your way.