{"id":27399,"date":"2026-07-31T09:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27399"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:03:48","slug":"reading-the-bible-through-the-lens-of-love-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27399","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Bible Through the Lens of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEEDTOBREATHE: &quot;Brother (feat. Gavin DeGraw)&quot; | Lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KRSLz_KgUsM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Will We Use the Bible?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday, July 31, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC faculty member Brian McLaren highlights how reading the Bible through a lens of love has inspired many Christians to works of goodness and compassion in the world:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Biblical Christians have thrived when we\u2019ve used the Bible with the goal of becoming good people who, because we follow Jesus, do good works in God\u2019s good world. And we have languished and<\/strong> <strong>wandered when we have used the Bible as a weapon to threaten others, as a tool to intimidate others and prove them wrong\u2026<\/strong>. Sadly, sometimes the very people who most love the Bible have been those who have used it for these other purposes, sometimes to the neglect of its essential purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But again, think about what truly biblical Christians (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, liberal, conservative, charismatic, whatever) have done when they have understood the profitable purpose of Scripture. Instructed by Scripture, they have \u2026 built hospitals and schools to heal bodies and strengthen minds. They have given money to needy people around the globe\u2026. They have crossed racial, ethnic, and class barriers, seeing all people as brothers and sisters. <strong>They have chosen to suffer rather than betray their faith or make others suffer\u2026<\/strong>. They\u2019ve done their work as teachers, farmers, bricklayers, nurses, scholars, mechanics, sellers, public servants, scientists, homemakers, cab drivers, and cooks with a special sense of purpose, love, and joy. <strong>Their \u201cgood works\u201d included doing \u201cgood work\u201d from day to day \u2026 as part of their holy, sacred vocation in God\u2019s creation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why? Since they understood the real purpose of Scripture, they let Scripture equip them for good works in our needy world<\/strong>. Their words and deeds together have qualified them to be bearers of good news. <strong>Sure they have never been perfect, but they have often been wonderful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>McLaren invites us to read the Bible through a lens of love:<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also have a choice today: Will our readings betray the way of Christ in our day, or will they set our course toward God\u2019s dreams? <strong>Will we let the story continue in and through us, along its intended trajectory, toward God\u2019s undying, embracing dream called the kingdom of God?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This \u2026 approach does not lessen the agony one feels reading the conquest of Canaan with the eyes of one taught by Jesus to love all, including enemies. <strong>But it helps turn the Bible back into what it is, not a <\/strong>l<strong>ook-it-up encyclopedia of timeless moral truths, but the unfolding narrative of God at work in a violent, sinful world, calling people \u2026 into a new way of life\u2026. T<\/strong>his is the struggle of common people in the journey of faith, hope, and love. And it challenges us: <strong>To be truly biblical does not mean being preoccupied with some golden age in the ancient world and God\u2019s word to people back then. It means<\/strong> <strong>learning from the past to let God\u2019s story, God\u2019s will, and God\u2019s dream continue to come true in us and our children.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alistair Begg<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/micah\/6-8.html\">Micah 6:8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When John Newton, the eighteenth-century hymn writer and pastor, preached on this verse, he entitled his sermon \u201cNo Access to God but by the Gospel of Christ.\u201d Why would he use a title that seems to lack any connection to the verse?! Newton himself commented, \u201cThere is hardly any one passage in the Bible more generally misunderstood.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.truthforlife.org\/devotionals\/alistair-begg\/#161-1\">[1]<\/a> His sermon title, it seems, was aimed at correcting the common misunderstandings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Newton\u2019s title alerts us to the danger of reading the virtues described here and then attempting to live them out <em>without<\/em> the gospel, or proclaiming them<em>&nbsp;in place of&nbsp;<\/em>the gospel, as a means of access to God. <\/strong>Neither of these does justice to what the prophet\u2014and the Lord\u2014intended. <strong>The best way to understand <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/micah\/6-8.html\">Micah 6:8<\/a> is not as a list of things that <em>contribute<\/em> to our justification but as <em>evidences of<\/em> our justification. <strong>When we view it this way, with the proper motivation and goals established, we can understand what the Lord was calling Israel, and is calling us, to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lord, through Micah, tells us first to \u201cdo justice.\u201d This means a commitment to act in accord with God\u2019s will and purpose. For example, in Deuteronomy, Moses says that God \u201cexecutes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/deuteronomy\/10-18.html\">Deuteronomy 10:18<\/a>). <strong>We want to care about the things God cares about, which means taking such priorities seriously, seeking to \u201cdo good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith\u201d<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/galatians\/6-10.html\">Galatians 6:10<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Will We Use the Bible? Friday, July 31, 2026 CAC faculty member Brian McLaren highlights how reading the Bible through a lens of love has inspired many Christians to works of goodness and compassion in the world: Biblical Christians have thrived when we\u2019ve used the Bible with the goal of becoming good people who, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27399"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27406,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399\/revisions\/27406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}