What Kind of Person Should You Be?
by Stephen Bastin
There
was an interesting program on TV the other night.
It was something about “Bible Mysteries.”
Well, the Bible is a mystery to a lot of people for different reasons.
God did not write it to be a mystery, but some have made it mysterious by
their way of looking at it.
To
some it is a mystery because they have been told they cannot understand it.
They have never opened it, never read it, never heard the stories that
are to be found in it. I once met a
person who had never heard of Adam and Eve.
To her the Bible was quite a mystery.
To
others, the Bible is a mystery, because they are not interested in what is
plainly declared. They are searching
for some “deeper meaning.” They
want to find the “Bible code.” They
want an accurate forecast of the future. They
have accepted the idea that what it literally says cannot be true and one must
search for a “deeper, hidden” meaning.
The
Bible was not written in code. It
was not written to tell us about the future except in a very limited sense.
For
example, the book of Revelation is not about what is happening in our world
today. It is about what was going to
happen in the lives of those to whom it was first addressed.
(You might read the first four verses if you question this.)
It also assures those who are faithful to Jesus that there is a bright
future to which they may aspire. That
is a future to which faithful Christians may still lay claim.
Certainly
there are things in the Bible that are difficult to understand.
The difficulty may lie in the differences between the culture of the
Bible and the culture of the reader. The
difficulty may lie in the subject matter being discussed.
There are difficulties in a calculus book but that does not prevent
people from taking calculus. The
Bible difficulties are not insurmountable.
On
the other hand, there are many things in the Bible that are very simple, very
straight forward and almost difficult not to understand.
There
are two things that the Bible sets forth very clearly.
One is the answer to the question, “Who is God?”
The other is the question, “What kind of person should I be?”
This is the question we want to consider here.
Take for example a passage from Paul’s first letter to the Christians at
Corinth, chapter six, verses nine through eleven.
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not
There
are several things we can learn from this passage.
For example, we learn that the unrighteous are in trouble with God.
This passage does not give us a complete answer to what is unrighteous
but it does give us a beginning. The
passage lists things which God considers unrighteous.
Any
English dictionary will give you a pretty good description of the meaning of the
words for sin in this passage if any of them are unclear to you.
There are other ways to investigate the meaning of these words but an
English dictionary will give you enough of an indication that you will be able
to avoid committing these sins.
It
is also important to notice that none of these sins is held against those to
whom Paul writes. They have been
“washed, sanctified and justified.” They
are righteous not because of what they have done but because of the action by
God to forgive them and give them a new beginning in life.
In
another passage found in Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia, chapter
five, verses 16 through 24 he discusses not only those things which will keep
people from inheriting the kingdom of heaven, but also those characteristics
which a Christian needs to exhibit in life.
On the one hand there are things which it is not proper for a Christian
to do and on the other hand there are characteristics which a Christian must
diligently seek.
The
four accounts of Jesus life found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell us about
Jesus. By telling the story of Jesus
they are showing us how to live as followers of Jesus.
We ought to think like Jesus. We
ought to treat people as Jesus treated people.
We ought to react to personal insults and injustices as Jesus reacted to
those insults heaped on him. In
short, the life of Jesus teaches us how to live.
If
you want to know when the world is going to end, get yourself a crystal ball and
gaze until the answer appears. If
you want to know how to treat your wife, your husband, your children, your
parents, your co-workers and others, read the Bible.
It will give you the answers you need, not necessarily the answers you
want.
I
did not go to a school of theology or seminary, but I know how to figure out
from the Bible what is right and what is wrong.
You can too.
God
will bless you in a search to find His will for your life.