May 13 Daily Devotional

Let the Bible speak!

... [Some] people ... never fully accept the teaching and the authority of the Scriptures.... They do not come to the Bible and submit themselves utterly and absolutely to it. If only we came to the Scriptures as little children and took them at their face value and allowed them to speak to us, this sort of trouble would never arise. These people will not do that.

What they do is to mix their own ideas with spiritual truth. Of course they claim that basically they take it from the scriptures; but, and that is the fatal word, they immediately proceed to modify it. They accept certain biblical ideas, but there are other ideas and philosophies which they desire to bring with them from their old life. They mix natural ideas with spiritual ideas. They say that they like the Sermon on the Mount and 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. They claim that they believe in Christ as Savior, but still they argue that we must not go too far in these matters and that they believe in moderation.

Then they begin to modify the Scriptures. They refuse to accept it authoritatively in every respect, in preaching and living, in doctrine and world outlook. "Circumstances are changed," they say, "and life is not what it used to be. We are now living in the twentieth century."

So they modify it here and there to suit their own ideas instead of taking Scriptural doctrine right through from beginning to end and confessing the irrelevancy of talk about the twentieth century. This is God's Word which is timeless; and because it is God's Word, we must submit to it and trust Him to employ His own methods in His own way.

Spiritual Depression, pp. 44-5

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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