If we look at 2 Timothy 3:17, we see the purpose to be “so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”; that’s
quite different than being thoroughly equipped to prove me right and you wrong.
Wright says “As I have argued in this book, ‘the authority
of scripture’ is really a shorthand for ‘the authority of God exercised through
scripture’”.
“The whole of my argument so far leads to the following
major conclusion: that the shorthand phrase ‘the authority of scripture’, when
unpacked, offers a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire
cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented
through the Spirit-led life of the church precisely
as the scripture-reading community.”
He continues: “We read scripture in order to be refreshed in
our memory and understanding of the story within which we ourselves are actors,
to be reminded where it has come from and where it is going to, and hence what
our own part within it ought to be.”
“’The authority of scripture’ refers not least to God’s work
through scripture to reveal Jesus, to
speak in life-changing power to the hearts and minds of individuals, and to
transform them by the Spirit’s healing love.”
“In other words, if we are to be true, at the deepest level,
to what scriptural authority really means, we must understand it like this: God
is at work, through scripture (in other words, through the Spirit who is at
work as people read, study, teach, and preach scripture) to energize, enable,
and direct the outgoing mission of the church, genuinely anticipating the time
when all things will be made new in Christ.”
Hmmm, that’s quite different from using the Bible to give me
authority to do what I want to do and to give me the authority to judge someone
else who sees things differently.
Something to think about.
