Love is an Orientation
I believe it was to force everyone to think for themselves and learn what it means to implement their faith through God’s eternal Kingdom Principles, in their own situations in real time as life uniquely happens.
God could have made the Bible a million page rule book filled only with yes/no answers to all of life’s questions, situations, circumstances and experiences so that we would never have to think for ourselves in how we are to apply our faith in our own contexts – whether in Jesus’ day, our day today, or if the Lord tarries, days of generations to come after us.
Jesus could have spoken a majority of the time in concrete words communicating a simple message not through parables but in commands, to his friends (the disciples), his critics (the religious gatekeepers) or his audience (the general public as he taught).
But Jesus didn’t.
He knew that such a thought process, as easy as it would be to communicate and walk away, would not easily work for every situation or solve every problem in every circumstance throughout all of the generations to follow. Jesus could have taken the easy way out, and he didn’t. He had enough faith in us not to take the easy way out either. Jesus could have constantly spoken in commands as easy as he completed any of his unreal miracles. But he chose not to. He knew such a medium would not be sufficient to draw people closer to him (one biblical example for what I am suggesting: The countless stories throughout the Old Testament about the Israelites and their inability to fall in line with the simplistic command-based Holiness Code).
If what I am saying were not true the Bible would not be filled with stories, narratives and overarching transcultural and transgenerational principles; it would just be completely filled with simple one sentence statements of yes and no, communicating one word answers to everything that could ever possibly happen in any way, time, situation and circumstance from Jesus’ time until Jesus comes back.
And if that’s how you read the Bible you’re missing the point of what it means to live out our faith in a bold, Jesus-modeled countercultural way in today’s culture.
Start living your faith.
As my wife says,
Life is not theory.
Much love.
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