Look. Anyone who knows me very well at all knows that I have the highest regard for God’s Word and those who honor it. I applaud those who seek to apply it’s precious truths to their lives and who challenge others to do the same. I challenge those who treat it’s authority with contempt. But having said that, let me share with you a phrase that bothers me to no end. Just about anytime I hear it, I silently mutter to myself, “Oh boy, here we go.” And here’s the phrase.
“But it’s right there in the bible.”
Why is it that this phrase bothers me so? After all, I absolutely believe that the bible is the “court of final appeal” in all matters of faith in practice. At the end of the day, we absolutely should base our thinking and actions on what is “right there in the bible.” But the reason that phrase bothers me is because I’ve learned that the chief weapon of the Pharisaical legalist is the bible. And with it they seek to hypocritically bludgeon others. They always have.
“At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” (Matt 12:1-2, ESV)
This seems to be a real problem. And the Pharisees aren’t going to let it go. Christ’s disciples had broken the 5th Commandment by their reckoning. They had worked (gathered grain) on the Sabbath. Exodus 20:10 plainly says you should do no work on that special day. Look…it’s right there in the bible.
So how did Jesus respond? By pointing out what else was “right there in the bible.” David and his men, he reminds them, ate consecrated bread that was not lawful for them to eat. And the priests regularly broke the Sabbath by doing work associated with the sacrifices. In doing so he points out the hypocrisy of legalism.
I’ve always been somewhat amused that ladies wearing jewelry and with styled hair (see 1 Tim 2:9) speak condescendingly of tattoos (Lev 19:28) on others. Hey, they are both “right there in the bible.” Or take the judgmental reaction of men with stylish goatees (see Lev 19:27) when they see a man with long hair (1 Cor 11:14,15). Instructions against both are “right there in the bible.”
Legalists use the bible to pluck the speck out of the eye of others while ignoring their own proverbial log (Matt 7:1-6). They creates arbitrary markers for establishing what is holy by proof texting from scripture and these markers ALWAYS place the legalist in a favorable light. Jesus HATED this approach to spirituality because it ENTIRELY misses the point.
So he challenges the Pharisees (both then and now) by reminding them of what is truly at the heart of scripture. In focusing on the prohibitions of the ritual laws, the Pharisees had missed their point. Quoting from Hosea 6:6, he reminds them that the point of the ritual laws was to prepare the heart for genuine worship of a God of mercy.
Christ’s point was not to justify the disciples actions (anymore than my point here is to justify or condemn women’s jewelry, tattoos, goatees, or men with long hair). Christ’s point was to highlight that it is so easy to get wrapped up in the details of scripture that we miss (A) our tendency to overlook our failures in other areas and, (B) the God of mercy who is to be the focus of our obedience in the first place.
So let’s remember, as we survey the "spiritual carnage" on the other side of the arbitrary moral boundary markers behind which we have conveniently placed ourselves, that Hosea 6:6 says: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
After all, it’s right there in the bible.