1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. The written pages from Matthew to Revelation did not make Christianity; Christianity made those pages. Words are the accident of the matter. It is easier to carry a book around in our pocket than it is to carry God's Spirit around in cur life. But gospel is power; it is life, Divine life. Christ is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"; the whole thing. And to be a Christian is not to know a book, but to be knit into the Son of God. There was no book in St. John's piety, or in St. Peter's, or in St. Paul's. I know whom, not what "I have believed." This, of course, is not to depreciate the Christian Scriptures. They serve a necessary purpose. They are a highway over which men are to be led to Christ. The error does not lie in using the written records as an instrument, but in treating them as a finality, as a substitute for Christ. We are in danger of trying to live on an inspired description of Christ and a verbal photograph of Him instead of succeeding in living on Christ. We cannot live on a history — even an inspired history. Christ told His disciples that it was expedient for them that Pie go away; to their advantage that He go away, because He would send His Spirit instead. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. |
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