Day 31 – How do we use the Bible?
Mark 12:18-34
Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Liz Nixon writes:
The Sadducees do not believe in resurrection and so set out to prove their position is correct in a conversation with Jesus. A Bible teacher that I listen to regularly says that whenever he is arguing with God, God doesn't ever come round to his way of thinking! The Sadducees thought if they had a good enough scenario, then they could prove their case against resurrection. And what does Jesus do? He goes to the Scriptures. For Jesus, the Scriptures are the place to find truth. He goes on to say that the most important law for people to obey is the law of love, that the heart of the message of the Scriptures is love, love for God and love for others. That's how Jesus summarises the whole of the Scriptures.
When you think of the Bible as a whole, how would you sum it up? Would you describe it in the same way as Jesus did? Or some other way?
We see in this passage of Scripture that love is the minimum standard that God wants from us. How can you view the Bible through a lens of love each time you read it? How can you increasingly live a life of love in response?