{"id":33186,"date":"2012-10-08T10:51:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T15:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=33186"},"modified":"2012-10-06T07:17:37","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T12:17:37","slug":"red-letter-christians-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Letter Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Some of you may know a bit of a crowd gathered around the idea of being red-letter Christians, that is, Christians who root praxis in the words of Jesus. Some are not too happy with that approach if it means dismissing or devaluing the teachings of the apostles. In other words, this is about canon \u2014 all the books are God\u2019s Word for the churches and not just the words of Jesus \u2014 and hermeneutics \u2014 where do we begin when reading the Bible?<\/p>\n

What relationship do the teachings\/words of Jesus have in the Christian thinking about ethics? First place, even with the others, or the measure for the others?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike Bird and Denny Burk<\/strong> <\/a>have a brief face-off on this issue:<\/p>\n

Denny Burk:<\/p>\n

In other words, the \u201cI am of Christ\u201d faction may have felt that they could sidestep the authority of Christ\u2019s apostles by claiming that they heard directly from Jesus himself. In this sense they were the original red-letter Christians. Because Jesus spoke to them directly, they could sideline the apostles and other teachers in authority over them.\u00a0Is this not the same approach that modern day red-letter Christians take when they elevate the words of Jesus as if they had some special priority over the other words from scripture? This approach lends itself to the suppression of black letter texts that seem to differ from the emphases of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mike Bird:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0I think Paul was a \u201cred letter Christian\u201d to the extent that he recognized and prioritized the dominical authority of Jesus\u2019 words ahead of his own instruction. Consider his remarks about marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:<\/p>\n

10\u00a0<\/sup>To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband.\u00a0And a husband must not divorce his wife.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord):\u00a0If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul is careful to note when one of his exhortations is rooted in Jesus tradition and when he speaking out of his own apostolic\/charismatic authority. He does that, not to avoid plagiarism, but because he recognizes the particular authority that the words of Jesus carry.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0<\/strong>In my recent studies, I have been impressed with the repeated reference and strong reverence made in the early church (esp. by Clement of Rome and Papias of Hierapolis) to the\u00a0\u201dwords of the Lord\u201d\u00a0(logia kuriakon<\/em>). \u00a0The words of Jesus, from canonical and agraphical sources, emerge time and time again as the highest authority to which one can appeal. Not against or as an alternative to the prophets and apostles, but within them, as part of the \u201coracles of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0<\/strong>The Gospels are not super-canonical over the Epistles. However, the Gospels do possess a canonical primacy, placed at the head of the New Testament canon, and as primary witnesses to the ministry, passion, and resurrection of Jesus. \u00a0As Meredith Kline put it:<\/p>\n

In the canonical sequence, the tetraevangelion functions for the New Testament, much the same way that the Pentateuch functions for the Old Testament: a testimony to God\u2019s redemptive work, a ratification of the covenant, and marking out the way of life for God\u2019s people. (Meredith G. Kline, \u201cThe Old Testament Origins of the Gospel Genre,\u201dWTJ<\/em>\u00a038 [1975], 1-125-27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, we have to\u00a0countenance\u00a0the special place that the words of Jesus have in Christian discourse, be that in ethics or theology. In that sense, within a canonically shaped hermeneutic, we should all be \u201cRed Letter Christians\u201d!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of you may know a bit of a crowd gathered around the idea of being red-letter Christians, that is, Christians who root praxis in the words of Jesus. Some are not too happy with that approach if it means dismissing or devaluing the teachings of the apostles. In other words, this is about canon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRed Letter Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some of you may know a bit of a crowd gathered around the idea of being red-letter Christians, that is, Christians who root praxis in the words of Jesus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Red Letter Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of you may know a bit of a crowd gathered around the idea of being red-letter Christians, that is, Christians who root praxis in the words of Jesus.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-08T15:51:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-06T12:17:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/\",\"name\":\"Red Letter Christians\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-08T15:51:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-06T12:17:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Some of you may know a bit of a crowd gathered around the idea of being red-letter Christians, that is, Christians who root praxis in the words of Jesus.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/10\/08\/red-letter-christians-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Red Letter Christians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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