Here's the passage from 1 John my students will be translating for next Monday night's class.
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| Yes, I write in my Bibles. |
It contains this profound statement: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness -- none!" (so the Greek). We so often get this backwards. We think, "The only infallible source of knowledge about God and the world are the writings of _____________________ [insert the name of your favorite Bible teacher here] that can be supplemented, illustrated, and illuminated by the Bible." No!! The only infallible source of knowledge about God and the world is the Bible, which may be supplemented, illustrated, and illuminated by _______________'s writings. When Becky and I took pastors to Ethiopia with us, we would bring the local church elders into town for a 2-week conference. Each of our teachers taught one thing and one thing only: the Bible. We didn't use any of MacArthur's books or Dever's books or Piper's books or my books. We taught through a book of the Bible verse by verse.
God is light. "In thy light we see light." "The Lord is my light." For four and a half decades I have cultivated a love for the Bible and have tried to inculcate this love in the lives of my students. My purpose in blogging is to help you do the same. I am absolutely convinced that you can open the Bible without feeling fearful or intimated. You too can confidently share with others what you are gleaning from its pages.
As you feast on turkey this Thursday, I hope you will also feast and be satisfied at the table of Scripture. It's high time we rolled up our mental sleeves and spent time in the Scriptures on our own. Then be sure to share what God is teaching you with others. Learning is truly mastered when we can explain what we've learned to someone else.