In 2 Timothy 3:16 the apostle Paul says something about the purpose of the Bible: ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, for training in uprightness.’
Actually, to be precise, when Paul wrote this he was referring to what we know as the Old Testament. But what he says applies just as much to the New Testament too.
The Bible as a filter
One good way of thinking about the Bible is as a filter.
As we live our lives, we are constantly bombarded by ideas of all sorts. There are ideas that are common in the cultures we live in. And, as Christians, there are ideas that are held by the Christian circles we are part of.
If we imagine all these ideas coming down a big pipe towards us, the Bible can be pictured as a filter that allows some ideas through and keeps others out.
Importantly, however, we need to be proactive in letting Scripture work in this way. The Bible’s work of filtration doesn’t just happen automatically. Instead, we will often need to weigh things up, to spend some time thinking about whether various ideas fit with biblical teaching.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Paul tells his readers: ‘Test everything; hold on to what is good.’
Using the Bible as a filter really just means doing what Paul instructs in this verse. It means to make it a habit to think about the values of things in the light of Scripture and to reject anything that doesn’t pass the test.
Using denominational beliefs as a filter There are also many who go wrong by using denominational traditions to filter out biblical teaching.
No two denominations of the church agree on everything as regards Christian doctrine and practice. I would suggest that anyone who thinks there is a denomination that has got it all right is being very naive. Instead, each denomination has strengths and weaknesses when compared to others.
That is not to say that overall no denomination is better than any other. Some are much more in line with the will of God than others are. But the idea that any denomination avoids all mistakes is very unrealistic.
There are, sadly, many Christians who never stop to question the beliefs of their denomination. Instead of using the Bible as a filter to hold denominational ideas up to scrutiny, they do the opposite. Parts of Scripture that contradict, or at least fit awkwardly with, the views of a certain denomination are often just brushed aside.
Again, one of the main reasons God has given us Scripture is so that mistakes in Christian doctrine or practice can be corrected. If we refuse to allow the ideas of the denominations we are part of to be challenged by carefully examining them in the light of biblical teaching, we are not using the Bible as we should.
Avoiding idolatry
Whenever we use something else to filter out biblical teaching, we are guilty of idolatry. We have set up a man-made system of deciding what to accept and reject that is vastly inferior to the one God has provided. At best this will cause problems, at worst it will lead to disaster.
Instead, what we need to do is humbly accept the filter that God has provided, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. And we need to actively use this filter by constantly weighing things up.
— Max Aplin has been a Christian for over 30 years. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Edinburgh. He is aa UK national and currently lives in the south of Scotland. Check out my blog, The Orthotometist, at maxaplin.blogspot.com.