As I was studying the Bible I came across a very interesting fact. Did you realize that in all four gospels, Christ is proclaimed as God before we are told of his ministry and teachings? Matt 1:23 presents Jesus as being Immanuel (God with us); Mark 1:1 calls Him the Son of God; Luke 3:22 describes the voice proclaiming Jesus as the "Beloved Son"; and John 1:1 literally calls him God. There are other references to Christ's relationship to Almighty God. The thought that comes to me is this: If the Word of God takes great care to assert that Christ is God become flesh to bring salvation to man, why do so many Christians minimize the need to be Christ-like?
I was troubled by a discussion a pastor's gathering a few weeks ago when the discussion turned to the difficulties being faced by the church. The answer, as they presented, was to develop a mission objective for the church. They were greatly impressed by the book The Purpose Driven Church and talked about how they could and should use it in their ministries.
Why did this bother me you might ask: there was very little attendance to the Word of God. They talked about what the book said and what we should be doing in the church, and sometimes they were right on with the Word of God. After all, the Bible does tell us that where there is no vision, the people perish. I am just worried that we get so caught up in the perspective one person gives to the Word of God that we lose the Word of God as living, breathing, and valid to our everyday lives (2 Tim 3:16-17).
Do not misunderstand the purpose of this discussion, I don't think that these Christian writers are invalid or necessarily wrong in their presentation of a Biblical concept. What I am trying to say is that we need to rely on the Word of God first and use books like The Purpose Driven Life/Church, The Prayer of Jabez, The Battlefield of the Mind, etc. to supplement our understanding of the Bible. I am sure that we all agree that we should never replace the Bible with these other books. Still, that is what is happening when you sit around and discuss how to apply a book to your life and/or church without discussing why it is the Biblically correct thing to do. If you ignore the Word, you walk on dangerous ground.
So how does this relate to the topic of Christ's Deity? Being imitators of Christ is the purpose of spiritual growth. Every book that we use to help us grow should be Biblically based first of all. This means that it should be read critically and matched up to what the Bible says. Second, it should emphasize Christ since that is the focus that we need to have as Christians (Col 3:1, 17). Finally, I believe that some books are not for everyone and should not be used as such. Even though Christlikeness is the goal for every Christian, we must realize that the process will be different for each person. That's because we are all different. Some of us will face persecution for our faith while others will be spiritually oppressed. We all may have different sins that easily beset us, or struggle with different types of personality. This means that God needs to work on us according to His method and His design. This is why it is important to keep the importance of Christ as presented in the Scriptures in focus.
What are your thoughts?
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