There are those who have the idea that the Bible is the product of the church, in which men took some of the writings of apostles and proclaimed them to be “inspired” by God. The Bible we have today is the product of such “imagination,” and is not to be believed as the Word of God (or so these argue). On the other hand, there are those who believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and one of the characteristics of the church has to be that it is sanctioned and authorized by what is in the Word of God. The Bible is either dependent on the church, or the church is dependent on the Bible. At the same time, God has demanded that the church be the “pillar and ground of the truth,” (1 Timothy 3:15) and teach the Bible as His Word and revelation to man.

Paul emphasized in 1 Thessalonians 2:12 that the church at Thessalonica became a church because they “welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” They had the option of hearing the message of the gospel and determining that it was written and preached by men, OR receiving it as the Word of God. The Thessalonians received the message of Paul as the Word of God, and the church was formed.

The church today depends on the Word of God for its authority. We do what we do because the Word of God tells us to. We are what we are because of the fact that we live by the Word of God. As with the Thessalonians of Paul’s day, so we have the option of either believing the Bible and living by it, or rejecting it and living by the various systems that the world has to offer. It is either/or, not both/and. The church today is conflicted and struggling because we want to live partially by the parts of the Bible that we like, and partially by the standards of the world.

There has been, and always will be, a tension between the church and the world. The more the church becomes like the world, the more it loses its distinctiveness and loses, therefore, its appeal to the world. Why would anyone want to be a part of something they can get any where else in the world? However, when we live by the precepts of the Bible, the church will be different from the world.

DECISION TIME! Which will it be? Will we be what God wants us to be and live by His Word, or will we try to continue to live by the world? Will we keep one foot in the world and one foot in the Bible? What defines us as a community is the BIBLE! May we all study it daily and be found accepted of what God says!