Some people have made a god out of Paul’s writings and it shows. They are more committed to the ink on the paper than they are to the Lord in the margins. They value the words given by Paul but not the meaning that's given by the Holy Spirit. They are strict with their thoughts on scripture as if they wrote it themselves. Jesus put it this way when he told the religious leaders that they erred with the law because they ignored the weightier matters of mercy and justice and faithfulness. (Matt 23:23-24)
Now today, we still do the same thing but with Paul's words. We focus on the words Paul gave but not the weightier matters. For example, should a woman preach? Paul says no but the weightier matter is the gospel must be preached. It is a matter of justice and mercy to hear the word of God. It doesn't matter who brings the word. God used a donkey in the Old Testament. It's His word. He can use whoever he wants. Scripture isn't a prison, it's an example.
Toward the end of his life, Paul encouraged Priscilla, a woman, to speak on his behalf in front of a church. Not even Paul was bound by his previous writings. He grew with time. The world around him grew. So must we. Nowadays, Paul's words have become weapons some wield to make a point. Jesus is still saying there is a weightier matter of justice and mercy which is more important than the new words Paul gave us. When you weaponized Paul's words you put the Holy Spirit on the cross. It's this idea we have to protect our faith that got the religious leaders into trouble.
Just like they did with Jesus. They killed him to protect their law. We kill the holy spirit to protect the words Paul gave us. The Holy Spirit would do so much more to save people but we are focused on the letter of Paul's words too much. So we look as rigid as the Old Testament religious leaders. The people in the old testament couldn't fully obey the law. What makes you think you can be perfect enough for the new testament morality? The point of Jesus is we failed to understand the point of the OT law. The point of the Holy Spirit is we will fail to understand the point of the new testament. The disciples are looking at Jesus in his resurrected body and Jesus is like wait don't tell anyone, your gonna mess this up, wait for the Holy Spirit. I would say that again with scripture reading today, wait. Don’t read it, your gonna mess it up. Wait for the Holy Spirit. Take a moment and pray that God helps you read. So when you read scripture you're not just reading words but you're understanding life in the margins.
By trying to follow Paul's words so closely we have ignored the point of scripture. His words were meant to instruct and train. Not to make us strict and rigid. Paul's words are guides, not new laws. Our law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart & love your neighbor as yourself. We need no more. We have already been down this road of trying to keep every law perfectly. It always ends horribly when a man thinks he can be more virtuous than other people with perfect scripture keeping. Isn't it obvious that the religious leaders failed in Jesus’ time? Why do we repeat history? How is it not obvious that we are doing the same things they did when they killed Jesus? It was religious superiority that killed Jesus. It was, my denomination is better than your denomination, that killed Jesus. It was, my way of reading the Bible is superior to your way, that killed Jesus. When your bible reading makes you better than other people, you’re reading the wrong Bible. That's not why Paul wrote what he wrote. Part 2 will talk about why he wrote it.
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