Noose Avoidance

Once there was a man who wanted to know God’s will on a particular matter.  He took his Bible, opened it at random, and dropped his index finger onto the page, assuming that the verse on which it landed would tell him what to do.

But much to his chagrin, his finger fell on Matthew 27:5 which reports that Judas went out and hanged himself.  The man thought he had better try again.  This time his finger came to rest on the admonition of Luke 10:37, “Go and do likewise.”  

When he followed the same method a third time, his finger fell on these words of John 13:27, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

We often misread the Bible.  Some purposefully misread it to serve their own ends.  Some mistakenly believe the New Testament replaces the Old; that is, the Hebrew Bible [organized into three main sections: the Torah, or “Teaching,” also called the Pentateuch or the “Five Books of Moses”; the Neviʾim, or Prophets; and the Ketuvim, or Writings. It is often referred to as the Tanakh, a word combining the first letter from the names of each of the three main divisions.]

What needs to be replaced is the tunnel-vision most of us seem to have about the Bible.  It is the “Word of God” understood and written by human authors.  When we want to know God’s will on a particular matter, our Bible is one source if carefully and prayerfully read and applied.

I suggest we open our Bible and go straight to 1 John 3:15-18: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us. So, we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”   

To do otherwise is for us “murders” to spiritually hang ourselves.  Let's make sure we avoid the noose.

Deacon David Pierce