There was no place to hide. My high school friends and I were playing laser tag in our church's fellowship hall, but I made a fatal error. Instead of ducking into one of the classrooms for protection, I ran into the wide-open expanse of the fellowship hall. Typically, it was filled with tables and chairs, but on this night, they were all put away. There was no concealment or cover. All I could do was turn, face the enemy, and pay the price.
Some of us are playing a similar game with the Bible. God’s Word aims to correct our beliefs and behaviors. It ruthlessly blasts away whatever is not aligned with its truth. But many of us run, looking for concealment, cover, somewhere to hide because we don’t want our beliefs or behaviors challenged.
Some of us hide from God’s truth by giving up attendance. Despite what Hebrews 10:25 says about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, some of us have stopped gathering to hear God’s Word taught so that our beliefs and behaviors won’t be challenged. Of course, we mask this with excuses like, “No one can answer my questions,” or “It’s better if it's just me and God,” but most of us know we are trying to hide from God’s Word.
Some of us hide from God’s truth by giving up attention. We still attend worship services where the Bible is taught, but we mentally check out when the sermon begins. We, too, are trying to hide from God’s Word and mask it with excuses. We say, “I just get more out of the music,” or “I just can’t pay attention that long.” But whether we’re giving up attendance or attention, we’re just putting on pride. We’re looking for fine-sounding reasons to hide ourselves from the truth of the Bible because we’re pridefully convinced that our beliefs and behaviors don’t need to be challenged. We’re pridefully confident that our beliefs and behaviors are already perfect.
This is why we must study God’s Word “precept upon precept, line upon line” (Isaiah 28:10). We must not shrink back from hearing the preaching of “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). We must listen to teachers who taught as Jesus taught, who “beginning with Moses and the Prophets interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 27:27). This is essential because “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
We have no place to hide when we hear God’s Word taught like this. We can’t hide from the difficult things in the Bible by continuously hearing about our favorite subjects. When we hear the Bible taught line by line, we are forced to prayerfully consider the difficult things as they come to us in the text. We don’t jump from phrase to phrase or verse to verse, making up a “truth” to suit our itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3). When we hear the Bible taught verse by verse from beginning to end in its historical and grammatical context, we hear everything in it studied, interpreted, and applied to our lives faithfully. This is what it means to divide the Word of God rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). This means we will hear God’s Word faithfully taught on comforting subjects like love and forgiveness and uncomfortable subjects like divorce and predestination. It means we will study, understand, and apply God’s Word on charity and evangelism as well as homosexuality and gender.
We must talk about and understand everything as we find it in Scripture because when we teach the whole counsel of God’s Word precept upon precept, line upon line, centered on Christ, we have no place to hide. We must turn, face God’s Word, and pay the price. When we do, our beliefs and behaviors become increasingly aligned with God’s Word. When we do, we become more and more like Christ, who paid the price for us. And isn’t that what we’re striving for?
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