Week 46 Galatians
I got a little reminder today about bible-reading.
Actually it was reminder about how I read the bible.
Actually it was reminder about a mistake I slide into when I read the bible.
It’s like this: when I’m reading I almost instinctively focus on what’s simple and I ignore what’s difficult.
I concentrate on what’s interesting and I neglect what’s tedious.
I mentally highlight my preferences and disregard what I can’t make much sense of.
I do it all the time.
I could easily rewrite the bible so that it includes just the things I like (I mean…it’d be a long exercise. But not too difficult.)
So anyway my little reminder of this tendency was this: you have been called to live in freedom – not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.
In my MHJ Revised Version of the bible I’d obviously want to include the you have been called to live in freedom piece. And since my version would redact what’s difficult or boring or non-sense-making I’d edit out the second clause about not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.
I want to be free. Freedom is my natural preference. Serving someone else isn’t.
So today was a vexing little reminder about how I process my reading.
Note: quote from Galatians 5:13 (NLT)