Many years ago, at the church I was attending at the time one of the church leaders was rostered for one of the Bible readings at the Sunday service. However, she refused to do it.
The reading involved was Genesis 22:1-14, where God requires Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on an altar that he had built as God had asked him to. Abraham would have been totally stunned as to why God would ask him to kill the son miraculously born to him in his and his wife Sarah’s old age. Yet he was obedient to Gods instruction right up to the point where he had a knife in his hand ready to kill his son.
The reason the leader refused to read the passage was because, she claimed, ‘her’ God wouldn’t do what the scheduled passage said, and it shouldn’t be in the bible. Of course, in the full story we know that God didn’t in the end required Abraham to complete the deed but provided a nearby ram as a sacrifice in place of Isaac. We also know that the passage is in the bible because it has things to say about Jesus substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross, as well as his requirements for Christian discipleship.
This event highlights however a problem many have with certain passages in the bible which they find difficult and would prefer they weren’t there. So in effect they cut them out.
Indeed, I have to confess there are many passages that I would wish weren’t in the Bible myself. For instance, Jesus statement that I can’t be his disciple unless I deny myself; or the fact that if I am faithful, I may well cause division in my family; or that I am likely to be hated by people as he was.
However, I have found a way round this problem. I have produced another version of the bible, I call it the SBV, the Scissored Bible Version. It is much thinner than most Bible versions because I have cut out (scissored) all the bits I don’t like, and let me tell you there are a lot!
That is of course a bit of a joke. However, it raises what I think is a very serious issue. The fact that I believe many Christians, and indeed many churches, while they won’t admit it, are actually using the SBV, the Scissored Bible, and this is particularly serious in the area of mission.
There is one passage in particular that highlights this point, because it seems to have been cut out of the bibles many churches and their members use- which is 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
‘I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
The idea in verse 22 of being ‘ALL things to All people so that by ALL possible means’ so that we might save some appears to be missing from most of the bibles used by most Christians and churches, including those claiming to be ‘bible believing’. Yet that, what I call the Mission Mandate, with Paul’s example of passion and flexibility, needs to be at the heart of any successful missionary endeavour.
The reality is that in practice 1 Corinthians 1:22 has become-
‘I have become SOME things (that I am comfortable with) to SOME people so that by SOME means (that I am comfortable with) I might save some’. To which we might add, ‘if it fits in with my schedule’.
If we go back the 1500 years or so to when the western church last faced the missional challenge of a culture comprised of a kaleidoscope of pagan, pluralistic tribes as it does today, the word ‘comfortable’ wasn’t in the missionary lectionary. However, that word along with the prevalent use of the Scissored bible, is a major factor in the dismal and increasing missional failure of the contemporary church.
Our, now decades long, failure in meeting Jesus’ mandate to ‘make disciples’, will not be reversed until Christians and churches don’t just claim to be ‘bible believing’ but cease their use of the SBV, re-insert the word ALL into the Missionary Verse, and act on it. Only this will unshackle and unleash the resources God has given us for the purpose for which we were chosen; that is to bear kingdom fruit – ‘fruit that lasts’ (John 15:16).
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