I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How are we to understand this Scriptural witness to Scripture\u2019s own insufficiency in certain respects? Of course, most of us will agree that the author of this letter did not think of himself as writing Scripture. Be that as it may, the church has included this letter in its canon, and some readers would go so far as to ignore the author\u2019s voice and claim to hear only the voice of God. For such readers, this verse presumably is to be taken as an expression of God\u2019s<\/em> desire that readers of the Bible not become so focused on it that they fail to realize that personal interaction is better than communication via writing.<\/p>\nFor other Christian readers, this presumably serves for us too as a reminder that personal interaction is more important than interacting with writings \u2013 even writings in the Bible. There are some things that personal relationships can accomplish that reading often cannot. We find it easy to persuade ourselves that writings (whether the news, a letter from a spouse, or texts in the Bible) mean what we deeply hope they mean, even when their plain sense would not seem to support it. But \u201cas iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another\u201d (Proverbs 27:17<\/a>). Other people who challenge us are often harder to tune out \u2013 although that doesn\u2019t prevent us from trying.<\/p>\nFor those of us who are at times tempted to focus too much attention on the Bible, or to believe that it contains all the answers and solutions to all problems, this verse is a helpful reminder that an author of a letter that is now part of Scripture thought some things were better said face to face \u2013 that there were things that could not be accomplished as well or as effectively or simply as joyfully<\/em> through written words as through personal interaction.<\/p>\nThe Reformation sola scriptura<\/em> notwithstanding, I think most Christians including most of the Protestant Reformers would have agreed that in this important sense, \u201cScripture alone\u201d is not enough. And yet if there is something that characterizes much contemporary North American Christianity, it is the lone Christian reading the Bible in private.<\/p>\nAnd so, to my blog readers, I close by saying that I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use pixels and bytes. It would be far better to talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.<\/p>\n
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