God says... "You were never meant to understand My Word on your own."

By Jason V (Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor)

Be honest: Have you ever read a passage of Scripture and thought, “What in the world is going on here?”  Have you ever thought that maybe God never intended you to be able to understand it on your own.

The Lone Ranger is a quintessentially American style of hero.  The iconic image of the lone gunman, enforcing the law against all odds, is one of our favorite images.  Bruce Willis picked up the Lone Ranger motif in his series of Die Hard movies and Kiefer Sutherland played that role of man-alone-against-all-odds as Jack Bauer in the hit TV series, 24.

In the Middle Ages, images of heroism and villainy were quite different.  The great heroes were those who were most loyal to their Lord or King and who stood with their brothers in arms.  The “Lone Rangers” were the black knights, who were almost always bad guys.  The knight who rode off into the forest alone was perhaps brave but also shifty, unreliable and not to be trusted.

As American Christians, we need to realize how much of our life of faith is shaped by our culture and not by God’s Word.  One example is the belief that every Christian can understand the Bible on his own.  God did not say that in His Word.  Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

The apostles and prophets received God’s Word and wrote it down for us.  Evangelists proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers to bring them to Christ.  Pastors and teachers serve the church by preaching and teaching God’s Word.  Christ calls us to belong to His church, where we can each exercise our gifts in building up the whole body together.  Cut off and left on our own, we just don’t grow and thrive as God intended.

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