Bible
Study: Hebrews 4, 12 to 16 and Mark 2, 13 to 17.
The letter
to the Hebrews in drawing our attention to the importance of God’s words says: “The
word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to
the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the
thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden…”
Hebrews 4:12-13.
I think it
was St. Jerome who said: “Ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
You cannot claim to be born again if you are ignorant of the word of God. And
if all you know about the Bible is what others have said to you, and you have
never taken out time to read the bible by yourself, then you are as well
ignorant of the Scripture. I say this because if you solely depend on what
others say about the Bible, be mindful of the fact that the devil himself
quoted the Bible in Matthew 4:6.
I
challenge everyone who calls himself born again to finish the Bible. Do not hide
under the pretext of no-time. Consider the amount of text, funny stories,
jokes, news items and so many other write-ups we read daily on social media; whatsapp,
facebook and the rest. I can bet that if you have a smartphone, you read over
5pages worth of text on a daily basis. Translate that to the Bible and you
would see that you can finish it within a year or two.
As much as
we read the Bible, we must also be attentive to the Spirit behind the text.
Jesus broke every protocol when he decided to attend a party at a tax collector’s
house. He openly sat down to eat and drink freely with tax collectors and even
those considered the worst sinners in the society. This troubled the
self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees who felt Jesus was doing something wrong
by associating with such persons. After all, they say “birds of the same
feather flock together.”
In response,
Jesus said to them: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” By this,
Jesus meant that salvation is closer to those who acknowledge their own sinfulness
than those who felt they could justify themselves. This is point Jesus makes in
Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice
the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, 'Let me take the
speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the
speck out of your neighbour’s eye.”
If we
simply go by the letter of the text, it would mean that Jesus was sanctifying
the business of the tax collectors or that we must be bad to get Jesus eat with
us. But if we go beyond the text and try to understand the Spirit behind the
action of Jesus here, we would see that Jesus was simply employing the strategy
of sharing a meal to bring about the conversion of Levi. As born again Christians,
our attitude towards others should never be that of condemnation but
encouragement. They say “never throw away the baby along with the bath water.” We
must love the sinner but hate the sin.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, deepen in me a love for your word and grant that I may understand
the spirit behind the text. Amen.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith.
It is well with you. God bless you. Happy new week
Fr. Abu.
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