On Thursday the bible study leaders were all sitting around prepping next week's passage from Romans together. All seemed to be going well, except for some little minor issues here and there, until someone blurted out: "What's happening in Romans 3:4???? What a stupid argument Paul's using!!!! It doesn't make sense AT ALL!!!!" Silence descended upon the people gathered there quicker than a group of male students onto a free buffet.
True story.
And that someone was me.
Maybe I was a bit harsh, maybe I should have phrased it better, but the argument that Paul was using which so confused me was pretty stupid. (However, let me say at this point that the difficulty arose due to the many possibilities for interpretation the word "Let" has. I understood the passage according to the one interpretation when the other had probably been meant.) (So yes, I was wrong in saying what I'd said about Paul!)
However, I realized that I rather enjoyed telling my blunder to people, not only because it's a funny story, but because it shocks people out of their complacency concerning the Bible.
Let me say at this point that I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it is true and infallible. Me accusing Paul of silliness is not a sign of me undermining the authority of the Bible. It was rather a sign of me struggling to understand and wrestling with the text.
What often happens with people when they reach a tough part that's hard to understand, they tend to stop struggling through it, thinking that it's okay that they understand most of the passage. However, I think that's lazy (and don't get me wrong, I fall into this trap quite often myself!!), and why I keep on telling my story is so that people get kicked into gear: for them to challenge me on my argument, to go back to that bit and struggle with it and explain to me why I was wrong and why Paul was right. We need to wrestle with the Bible ESPECIALLY when it's not making sense! Next time I take Apostle Paul on, I'll just try to do it in a nicer way ;)
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1 comment:
I'm under the impression that Paul sometimes writes in his letters something along the lines of "this is not what God is saying, this is what I think and I may be wrong"... do you know what I'm talking about, or am I misguided?
Oh, and you still have two of my books, can I come and fetch them some time?
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