Devotional
Focusing on the Letter Misses the Word
Some of the Pharisees said,
"This man Jesus is not from God, for He is working on the Sabbath."
John 9:16
The great miracles of the Messiah were right in front of them, but they did not notice because of their spiritual blindness.
The Pharisees had just experienced Jesus healing a man that had been born blind. It was a tremendous miracle of grace and compassion. A man who formally could do very little was now released to live the life of an ordinary man. A life changed by the love and power of God. And yet, because Jesus performed that miracle on the Sabbath, they concluded that he could not be from God.
How often does our intricate study of the text, combined with a measure of pride and a pinch of fear, lead us down a path of ignorance and judgement? We pick out verses and magnify the details of their wording, then ignoring all else, blunder forward into an abyss of dogmatic doctrine which shows little grace and no real understanding of the heart of the message.
It is so important to not just read and study the letter, but to see the message through spiritual eyes. The Bible was not supposed to be a legal code, but a revelation of God, delivered through the prophets and apostles in a way we could understand.
With our hearts pure and our spirit’s genuinely hungering for God, let us focus on the Word of God so we can know Him better.
Brett Wilson
The Pharisees had just experienced Jesus healing a man that had been born blind. It was a tremendous miracle of grace and compassion. A man who formally could do very little was now released to live the life of an ordinary man. A life changed by the love and power of God. And yet, because Jesus performed that miracle on the Sabbath, they concluded that he could not be from God.
How often does our intricate study of the text, combined with a measure of pride and a pinch of fear, lead us down a path of ignorance and judgement? We pick out verses and magnify the details of their wording, then ignoring all else, blunder forward into an abyss of dogmatic doctrine which shows little grace and no real understanding of the heart of the message.
It is so important to not just read and study the letter, but to see the message through spiritual eyes. The Bible was not supposed to be a legal code, but a revelation of God, delivered through the prophets and apostles in a way we could understand.
With our hearts pure and our spirit’s genuinely hungering for God, let us focus on the Word of God so we can know Him better.
Brett Wilson
Posted in Devotional