Jesus said, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12
Thought for the Day: The Unity and Authority of Scripture
How can we really be sure that the Bible is trustworthy? William Robertson Smith, a nineteenth-century theologian and editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica, explains why he believes the Bible:
If I am asked why I receive Scripture as the Word of God . . . [I answer] because the Bible is the only record of the redeeming love of God, because in the Bible alone I find God drawing near to us in Jesus Christ, and declaring to us in him his will for our salvation. And this record I know to be true by the witness of his Spirit in my heart, whereby I am assured that none other than God himself is able to speak such words to my soul.
We read Scripture not simply, as Luther put it, “to learn of the commands of God” but to encounter the “God who commands,” and to be transformed as a result. When we read the Bible and try to make sense of this God who commands and transforms us, we are doing theological reflection. Theology is not a popular word among many Christians, but we all engage in theology anytime we talk about God and try to understand him in Scripture. Graeme Goldsworthy provides a helpful definition of theology:
Theology properly refers to the knowledge of God, that is, to what is to be known about God through his self-revelation. . . . Theology means the knowledge of God as God himself reveals it. . . . The most important concern in the study of the Bible is the revelation of God: What is God saying to us in the record of his acts? What did God do in entering in a special way into the history of mankind? . . . The aspect which above all else creates the Bible’s unity is its theology. It is the one God who acts and speaks throughout the history of the Bible. Furthermore God acts and speaks with a unity of purpose. God’s message to us is one unified discourse, not a series of isolated and disconnected messages.
The only one who can tell us the truth about God is God himself, and he does this through his written word, the Holy Scriptures. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the writers of the Old and New Testaments have used human language to communicate God’s truth to God’s people. Tragically, the Bible does not hold the same authority for many American Christians today as it once did. Christian pollster George Barna exposes the alarming decrease in biblical authority when he reports:
The spiritual profile of American Christianity is not unlike a lukewarm church that the Bible warns about. Americans do not have strong and clear beliefs, largely because they do not possess a coherent biblical worldview. That is, they lack a consistent and holistic understanding of their faith. There are few tasks more important than helping Americans develop a biblical view of life. Otherwise, millions of people, including many within the youngest generations, will conclude the Christian faith does not represent deep, consistent truths about the spiritual and natural world.
We need to rediscover the authority of Scripture in our day. Philip Jenkins, an Episcopalian who studies trends in global Christianity, believes that the nearly fifty percent decrease in the Episcopal membership since the mid-sixties has to do with biblical authority. He explains:
If you’re in a new church in Africa or Asia, the Bible speaks to you as a more immediately relevant direct text, than it does for many Global North people for whom the Bible is basically part of the wallpaper. . . . People in the Global South take the Bible seriously as a source of authority. . . . In 10 to 20 years, the Episcopal Church in the United States will be a fairly miniscule body. The Anglican Communion, however, will be flourishing. It will continue to be what it is today: the third-largest religious organization within Christianity, and probably pretty soon the second largest, because the [Eastern] Orthodox Church is in such steep decline. . . . In terms of numbers, the Episcopal Church is headed for a point not much above the Amish—very rich Amish, but nonetheless Amish.
Episcopalians have to change course and reconnect with the biblical basis of our Anglican faith because the Bible reveals the truth of who God is. Jesus asked his disciples, Who do you say that I am? Our worldview depends on how we answer this question. Will we answer it biblically? Prophets, apostles, and other disciples through the ages have suffered and died, witnessing to the biblical truth of who Jesus is. In our day many still suffer and die for their witness. Will we stand with our sisters and brothers in Christ or has the Bible become wallpaper in our lives?
Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:
Fridays and Saturdays are days to focus on self-denial and fasting. One reason we fast on Fridays and practice these kinds of spiritual disciplines is because Friday is the day of the week when Jesus suffered for our sins. Jesus sacrificed himself in our place on the cross as God’s perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices for sin. Yet as his followers we offer him our own sacrifices, be they a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving or of sacrificial giving and service. Plan a sacrifice that you can make today for Jesus. Make it a sacrifice that reflects your joy and thankfulness for what he did not the cross for you. Begin with the confession below, and then ask the Lord to help you in forging a sacrificial plan. One family I know gave away returned a new entertainment center in their house and used the money to serve the poor. Select a sacrifice that is meaningful to you and one that you feel is in God’s will for you to do.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father: I have sinned against you, through my own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, and in what I have left undone. For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me all my offenses; and grant that I may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your name. Amen.
Spend further time in prayer and worship before studying the Gospel of John below.
Study: John 7:53-8:30, The Woman Caught in Adultery
[The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11.]
53They went each to his own house, 1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" 6This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." 8And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
I Am the Light of the World
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 13So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." 14Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." 19They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." 20These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
21So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come."22So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" 23He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." 25So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him." 27They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him." 30As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
Reflection Questions:
1) Jesus does not condemn the woman caught in adultery, nor does he condone what she has done, but he does warn her to sin no more. What do you think is the truth God wants us to understand from this passage?
2) The passage about the woman caught in adultery is placed where it is because of what follows. Jesus says that the leaders of the people judge according to the flesh but that he judges no one. He also tells them that they will die in their sins unless they believe in him. With these thoughts in mind, why did Jesus intervene in the stoning of the woman?
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