start with life
the thing i hate most about hearing biblical principles on something is that "life gets in the way." that's exactly right--and said by a person who was in a teaching time i was sitting in on. life isn't made up of principles and dictums and proverbs. life is made up of blood, hair, people--messy things that exist about as far away from principles as you can get.
so, i say don't start with principles, start with life. life is where we start regardless...life in a downward spiral from the get-go...and principles can't reach out to a downward spiral. life is what we've got to work with.
"in him was life and that life was the light of men." John 1:4
so, i say don't start with principles, start with life. life is where we start regardless...life in a downward spiral from the get-go...and principles can't reach out to a downward spiral. life is what we've got to work with.
"in him was life and that life was the light of men." John 1:4
posted by Aaron Perry at
9:39 PM
7 Comments:
at the risk of getting in way over my pea brained head "the Prince", how do we start with life and apply biblical principals... they must connect or else our Authority is meaningless... i guess this is what Christ did eh? met people in the dirt and filth of life and went from there... is it all about loving people and letting that be the guide???
i am in a point where i am questioning how i am suppose to mourn with those who mourn, etc... really wanting to put action to my convictions, but am struggling to get past the Christian cliches and "do something about it."
what i'm pushing against, scottie, is that the Bible is a book of principles. i don't think it is. it's a book of God's redemption. only one of its 66 books is a book of principles. i think the Bible starts and ends with life and gives us ways to make sense of it. trying to suggest a new paradigm from which to work.
right, so how do we move from one to the other so that the Bible and God is relevant to those around who don't give a crap???
I'm not sure I understand the seperation b/w applicable principles and real life.
When I read through a passage of Scripture. I usually come out of it with a few principles to apply. These impact my real, nitty-gritty life.
I'm sure there are some people who 'just' take the principles and cement them in their heads w/o ever applying them to real life...if that is what you are pushing against, sure.
scottie and matt: what i'm pushing against is that passages of Scripture aren't principles. they aren't maxims. there isn't a step to take between the principle of SCripture and the living of life. there's no "application" of a good rule...there is only being about God's work. and God's work, redeeming the entire cosmos, is much too big to be a rule.
to be clear, what i mean by principles are things that are found in Proverbs. i think sometimes we treat the rest of SCripture as having proverbs hidden in it in different forms. the form is as important as the content. that SCripture almost always talks of life (in some form--be it a story, a letter dealing with problems, a parable, etc.) and the way people lived in and saw the world can't be forgotten.
it's not a matter of application of principles, but reorientation of imagination.
"i think sometimes we treat the rest of SCripture as having proverbs hidden in it in different forms."
I guess I can see where I've had the mindset sometimes. Interesting.
Perhaps when you say "there isn't a step to take" and when I say "I'm not sure I understand the seperation" we're not saying something very different at all.
When I read Scripture I see history being lived out. One of my downfalls is I too often read the Bible like a textbook.
When I study Scripture, what I see is how God relates to humanity and how humanity relates to God. For each individual this relationship is different. With that said, I still think we can draw out of scripture the character of God.
God is immutible in character, not relationship.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home