We live in an exciting time where technology abounds. We have so many options that we can spoil ourselves. For example, when I was growing up there were times I would like one song that an artist did, but I would have to have the entire album or cassette tape just for the one song. Thanks to the digital world we live in now, I can buy the songs I like and put them in my favorite playlist, and I can have them on my computer, or I can have them on a device I carry with me, which makes it to where I only have to listen to those songs I prefer.
While making a playlist is convenient and allows us to pick and choose, some have this same mentality regarding the Bible. There are parts they like about what it says, and so they will focus on those parts and ignore the rest. Thomas Jefferson took it a step further with his Bible.
According to dailymail.com:
Particular passages didn’t sit too comfortably with Jefferson - including miracles such as the virgin birth, the resurrection and ascension. So in 1820, following his two terms as president, Jefferson took a razor blade to six other volumes and patched together his favorite passages before having it bound. Entitled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, containing 84 pages, it leaves out key moments to the Christian faith - including the holy ghost and holy trinity.
While some would never bother to make their own modified version of the Bible, as Mr. Jefferson did, many have done the same thing in their minds because they will only read and teach those parts of the Bible they like. Like Mr. Jefferson, they pretend those other parts of the Bible are not there, but as Christians, we cannot be like this. We must never fail to recognize that every Word in the Bible is important.
Psalm 119:160 The entirety of Your word is truth
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
While it is true that the New Testament is our authority for what we do and say as Christians, the entirety of the Bible should be important to us because the Old Testament teaches a lot about the nature of God and about salvation that we now have access to. As Paul said:
Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
We should never make a playlist of God’s Word by only listening to the parts we like. Instead, we should eagerly embrace everything it has to say, whether we find it hard or easy to follow. As Paul told the Ephesian Elders:
Acts 20:26 “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
So, keep enjoying our modern technology, but don’t ever neglect the whole counsel of God. Nothing in God’s Word should be ignored.
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