GET YOUR SISSORS AND JUST CUT IT OUT!

We are blessed with a lot of different English versions of the Bible which help us better understand it. Regardless of the version the Bible is a really big book that many people find hard to read. Reader’s Digest to the rescue (yes that’s right the magazine). They once published the “Reader’s Digest Bible.” Like their other condensed books it cut out the repetitious reading, long genealogies and other so called ‘non-essentials’ to make the Bible more reader friendly.

I’ve come up with a great idea for a new Bible version. I’m sure that in our modern culture of relativism a publisher could make a lot of money if they were to produce this Bible. I call it the “PPV” short for “Personal Preference Bible.” This version will come with a set of special ‘highlighters’ specifically designed to remove or rewrite those passages that you have a hard time accepting. With the “PPV” you could have a Bible that you believe and live by everyday 100%. Now wouldn’t that be great! (I best get my tongue out of my cheek before I bite it off.)

While we may laugh at such a far fetched idea, the fact of the matter is that many of us already have made our Bibles a “PPV” by ignoring those passages that challenge us. I once illustrated this by tearing a page out of the Bible. After all if we aren’t going to properly apply it to our lives then why leave it in there?

So what does this have to do with the spiritual gifts we talked about yesterday? Everything! Just like Paul said that all parts of the body were essential, so too we must keep the Bible in its context. I’m always amazed by those who want to dismiss the spiritual gifts found in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 but still want to keep Paul’s love chapter tucked right in the middle.

Paul’s discussion about love is an important part of the proper use of spiritual gifts. No matter what gift I may have or how important it may seem, if I don’t have love my gift is meaningless. Some go so far as to say that the gifts are not for today because we have received the perfection Paul describes in verse 10 through the Bible. I guess that’s one way to dismiss chapters 12 and 14. Yet Paul continues saying that he has grown up and stopped thinking like a child. He said that the time is coming when our incomplete knowledge will pass away. I thought perfection had come with the Bible? Am I missing something?

• But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love
  (1 Corinthians 13:13 MsgB).

Dare I even ask—“What do you think?” Careful, no “PPV’s” allowed.