“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Bible is a precious, important Book, and I for one value it highly. And the church for centuries has put a premium on it, God’s Word or God’s word pointing us to the Word, Jesus. That said, I believe the Bible is also a dangerous book. I’m referring to Bible thumpers and “hell” raisers. And much that is justified in verses here and there, yet not seen well in the overall arch and narrative even of the Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible alone.
That is why I think we do well to start in the gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then the rest of the New Testament, and then go through the Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible, and I would add the Apocrypha as well. We need to study Jesus before we study the Bible.
Strictly speaking, Christians are not supposed to be believers in the Bible, but believers in Jesus. If you’re just a believer in the Bible, and really take that astutely serious, you’ll eventually be tied up in knots. There’s no escape from contradictions within the Old Testament, even the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) itself. It is all too easy to conveniently gloss over that but use this and that passage to justify what is totally against Jesus and Jesus’s teaching and life.
Genocide is one example, a modern term meaning the extermination of a people group for some alleged important reason, not only with God’s wholehearted approval, but command. But Jesus comes along and practices and teaches entirely otherwise. And instead of God’s wrath being poured out through Jesus on sinful humanity, Jesus takes human wrath on himself and through the cross, through his death, brings God’s promise of new life.
We need to go to Jesus’s teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start. I’m not saying we can’t read the Old Testament with the New Testament, or even read the Bible consecutively, in order. But we must learn to read it all in the light of Jesus. God is revealed in Jesus, and in the Old Testament only through Jesus. Otherwise, we’ll easily find ourselves opposed to Jesus.
Jesus community 