When someone says, “I don’t know nearly as much as I thought I did when I was younger,” what does that mean? Those who hear and misunderstand this idea may conclude that the speaker lacks certainty, is a moderate, sits on a fence or otherwise doesn’t have the courage of his convictions, if he has any convictions. But, at least in my case, nothing could be further from the truth.

I am convinced that when God gave us the Bible, he gave us all he intended for us to know with absolute certainty. What he didn’t address or the blanks in our understanding he didn’t fill in are not eternally important. A Christian errs when, after filling in those blanks with his personal opinions, he imposes those opinions upon others, makes them tests of faithfulness and fellowship and, as did Diotrephes, “refuses to welcome the brothers” and “puts them out of the church” (3 John 9,10), at least the one that exists in his own mind and imagination.

As Christians we must be content with the fact that there are some things that are outside our realm of understanding and outside our right to deliver a verdict. As Moses taught Israel of old “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). But there are other things that are not “secret things”. They are “the things that are revealed”. They are the things for which we can produce book, chapter and verse for the position we hold and teach. They are the things of which we can say, “I know this is true because the Book says so.”

We were so blessed last weekend to have with us our brother Ed Wharton who did such a splendid job of helping us to see the Distinctive Nature of New Testament Christianity. Ed impressed upon us the importance of seeing the pattern that God clearly intended in the New Testament. Paul told Timothy to “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). And he reminded the church in Rome that “you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18). We were admonished to avoid the sin of Israel when the writer of Judges concluded the book, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). But we also saw the importance of avoiding making patterns of our own and imposing them on the New Testament and then on our brethren. The apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to “Continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:14-16, NASB).

The only way we can do what Paul told Timothy to do is to become faithful students of the Bible, that volume of sacred writings which can make us wise unto salvation. It and it alone possesses that ability. Everything else is a matter of opinion

God bless you,

Brad Fry