Life Application Bible

I'm sure you've heard of this one. It comes in a variety of modes. The best known is likely the NIV version, but you can find a chronological one (in the New Living version), as an app for your iPhone, and even a 17-Volume software version for the Logos Bible Software system. Lots of them. Everywhere. Because, you see, applying Scripture to your life is crucial. Ask any of the current seminaries and Bible schools and they'll tell you that there's nothing more important than applying God's Word to your life.

"What, Stan, are you disagreeing? Do I detect sarcasm?" Well, no, not really. But, yes. No, I'm not being sarcastic. Recognizing how God's Word affects my life is important. I mean, when God commands "A", I'd better "A". But we don't really mean anything that simple, do we? In fact, we don't often find anything that simple in the Bible. Usually it's more like "Jesus said 'What God has joined together let no man separate', so we shouldn't leave our spouses ... except when there are really, really good reasons." Or something like that. More often than that we get something like "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Now what do we do with that? "Well, okay, so Christ is God; therefore, I should ...?"

I think we're operating off of some bad assumptions that are deeply ingrained and need to be examined.

In the Tom Hanks movie, Turner and Hooch, the Hanks character takes this massive junkyard dog around his neat house and tells him, "This is not your room." I think, perhaps, we need someone to take us through the pages of Scripture and understand, "This not your book." What do I mean? The Bible is not about us. The primary character in the pages of Scripture is Christ. He first appears on page one with "In the beginning, God ..." (Compare with John 1:3 if you doubt me.) He shows up in Genesis 3 as the seed of the woman (Gen 3:14-15), the answer to the problem of sin. He shows up as lamb to replace Isaac as the sacrifice (Gen 22:8), the Passover lamb (Exo 12:1-11), the scapegoat (Lev 16:8-10). He is the Promised Messiah, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Alpha and Omega. The Scriptures are His story. "This is not your book." Now, certainly humans play a role in the books of the Bible and certainly the Bible edifies us and directs us and informs us, but that's just not the point -- He is. And obviously a focus on Christ produces action (James 2:17-20). All true. But remember the point: Jesus.

The second deeply ingrained assumption we seem to hold is that actions are more important than thoughts. Look, what's more important? Is it more important to act correctly or more important to know the truth? It's the longstanding conflict between orthopraxy (right practice) and orthodoxy (right thinking). Today's seminaries and schools tell pastors that right practice far outweighs right thinking. Oh, sure, work on both, but never ever preach a sermon without an application. "This is what it says, so you should ..." Because doing is more important than knowing. But is that true?

Consider this. How much of the Bible is constructed of commands? They tell me that the Old Testament contains some 613 commands. That is, of the over 23,000 verses in the Old Testament, we find only 613 commands. The rest? Information. Instruction. History. Wisdom. Explanation. Prediction. Lots and lots of stuff besides commands. If "do" is more important than "know", why such a lopsided text? And the New Testament fares only slightly better. There are something on the order of 1050 New Testament commands in amongst the more than 7,900 verses. Perhaps a better ratio, but still not a balance if you're going to argue that "do" is more important than "know".

The other problem with preaching application or a "life application Bible" concept is that it is generic. As an obvious example, we are commanded (Old and New Testament) to "love your neighbor". So, what does that look like? I suspect that it will vary from person to person and circumstance to circumstance, and telling someone "You must then do x" would short circuit that variation of a common command. And that's just with commands. How a doctrine affects me will often be different from how it affects you. It's not the preacher or the printer's job to tell me how it should affect me. That's God's job, isn't it?

But if we admit that the Bible is God's Word, that it is focused singularly on Jesus Christ, and that this is the primary point of the Bible and not simply "doing", then what? Well, apparently the "thing" we're supposed to know above all else is Christ. That's the point. We need to "come to know God, or rather to be known by God" (Gal 4:6). It is a "both-and" concept. We need to know Christ and we need Christ to know us (compare Matt 7:23).

Ultimately, of course, it looks similar, and that is part of our problem. We are "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). This is partly accomplished by "the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2). It is a product of "by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). And, indeed, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:10). But this is a product, the result of being justified in Christ, renewed in the Spirit. We work out our salvation not by our own hard work, but because "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13). So what do I do with a John 1:1? I don't grapple for a tip on what I should do today. I bow before Christ, the primary point of Scripture, and say, "Now I know you a little better." Because the better we know Him, the more we reflect Him, and that is the point -- always Him.