Three Cheers for the Bible, Part 3

Concluding this three part series is a celebration of the largest part of the New Testament, which I am labeling “the apostles’ teaching.” Salutes to the Old Testament and the gospels may be found here and here.

After the gospels, the remainder of the New Testament is a beautiful collection of Luke’s account of early church history, epistles (weighty, instructional letters) from various apostles, and the apocalyptic Revelation.

Why is this collection so important? What would our faith look like without them?

The apostles’ teachings are the putting together of the puzzles Jesus left them. The Lord spoke in parables, often leaving his followers scratching their heads. Why? Because Christianity is to be lived out and tested! Our faith is a “go” faith, and praise God we have the stories of what the going looked like. From the New Testament, we know early believers traveled throughout ancient Rome teaching all that Jesus commanded them. Some assemblies failed miserably, we know, and we gain from the apostles’ instruction to these churches.

Through the apostles’ teachings, we learn to not just form our theology, but live it out in a practical way. They challenge us to get up from our pews and be like the early Christians. We can pontificate, but we must also activate! In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains:

Theology is like the map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert [a thrilling feeling about God]. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God—experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map.

And the whole Bible is like that “map”. What good is a map without the adventure of using it to explore the world? The early church’s adventures are recorded for us in Acts through Revelation for us to study, apply, and emulate. These books illuminate Kingdom work in practical ways, answer many theological questions authoritatively, and help understand how the whole world (not just ancient Palestinians) fits in to the new covenant.

I’ve seen Bibles owned by many Christians where it looks like the last sixth (or thereabouts) has gone through a food processor. For good reason, we read, study, meditate, and discuss these passages because they often speak directly to our lives today. It's likely one of your favorite Bible verses is from the apostles’ teachings (my favorite: 1 Peter 1:8).

No matter which section of your Bible has the most notes and earmarks, we are incalculably blessed to have God’s holy word in our lives. To conclude my “Three Cheers for the Bible” series, I leave you with these great quotes about the Bible:

“The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” – A.W. Tozer

“The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.” ― Charles C. Ryrie

“The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.” – John Locke

“The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.” – Patrick Henry

“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.” – Isaac Newton

“I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.” – Johnny Cash

“The Bible is the rock on which this Republic rests.” – Andrew Jackson

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” – Theodore Roosevelt