the heart beats. When the soul leaves
the body, it falls back lifeless, pallid and
opaque.
It is the same with the letter and the
spirit of the Bible. When we see the spirit
within the Bible it comes alive. It flows
and dances through our lives, bringing
inspiration, motivation and clarity.
When we miss the spirit and argue over
the literal meaning it becomes flat and
hard; it dies.
Jesus said, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The
words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) Paul wrote:
“We should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter.” (Romans 7:6) “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians
3:6)
We might argue about whether the creation story accurately describes
natural history. We might question whether Noah could have fit so many
species on his boat for a whole year, or whether Moses actually could have
divided the Red Sea with his rod. But these are just questions of scientific fact,
not of eternal truth. If we rely on purely literal stories of the Bible to defend our
faith, it is like collecting military uniforms and hanging a general’s uniform in
front of them, then imagining that the empty uniforms will defend us, while
the general’s uniform leads them all in battle. And then we brag to our enemies:
“You will never defeat us! Look how many uniforms we have!”
If we believe in miracles but feel contempt and resentment toward others,
have we grasped even the most fundamental truths of Scripture? If our faith is
selfish and spiteful, in has no truth in it at all, no matter how much we think
the Bible gives us the truth. We have the dead letter, but we do not have the
spirit.
If on the other hand we use science to disprove the miracles in the Bible
we still have missed the truth. Challenging the literal meaning of the Bible
without seeing its spirit is like hanging up a garment, shooting it full of holes,
and then believing that you have killed the owner because the garment is full
of holes. It’s just shooting down straw men.
This battle rages across our culture today, with literalists setting out their
interpretations like so many uniforms, and atheists shooting them full of holes.
They are all just looking at the literal meaning and missing the real truth and
spirit.
Jesus said that the whole Bible teaches love for God and love for others.
(Matthew 22:40) “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for
When we go to the Bible
not to prove others
wrong but to find out
how to love others better,
we begin to see the
spirit within the letter.
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