Scheming Swindlers

I’m enjoying being here at the Arrow residential. I find that I am able to see myself and Fusion a lot more clearly in this context. There is something about being with people who love God but don’t come from the same background as you that is very important.

Peter Corney is leading the bible studies out of 2 Timothy chapter 2. He is talking about leadership development and I expect that you will see a few of the insights I gaining on this blog at some point.

Being with a bunch of other Christians who love God but are different to me is confronting because it challenges some of my fundamental ways of thinking. Many of them see parts of the bible differently to me and as I listen I find myself realizing just how settled I can be in my own way of thinking.

As we approach the end of the series of reflections on Ephesians 6 and the spiritual armor we can get to the heart of Paul’s approach to spiritual warfare. It is increasingly clear that for Paul, spiritual warfare is a battle for truth.

After the sheer grace of the helmet of salvation comes our only offensive weapon: the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)

Both times we see the devil turn up to engage directly with human beings in the bible he actually tries to quote God. In the garden of Eden and in the desert with Jesus the devil tries to reframe God’s reality. In the garden he succeeds, in the desert Jesus refutes him from the word of God.

Worrying about a mystical battle between angels and demons may well be missing the point. The central question of spiritual warfare is whose reality are you living from?

Our challenge is that the bible is actually fairly confrontational. If we took it too seriously it would ask very serious questions of us so we water it down.

I think Soren Kierkegaard hit the nail on the head when he said:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.

Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, If I do that my whole life woll be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?

Herein lies the real place of Christian Scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bibe, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you?

Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

I have a sense that at the moment God is intentionally wanting to shake some of my settledness and have me face assumptions that perhaps are less about truth and more about the comfort of my ego.

This is a battle we only win if we are prepared to sacrifice the high ground to someone who knows it better than us.