Thought for Today

Genesis 4:9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"  

Isaiah 45:11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands?

John 8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Luke 10:27 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."  

“I learn what obedience is only by obeying, not by asking questions. Only in obedience do I know the truth.” (I Want to Live These Days with You, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 279)

Is Bonhoeffer correct? My general rule-of-thumb is to not question Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He is my theological hero and I consider him the preeminent theologian of the 20th century. I have only quoted a portion of his devotional for today, so you are reading that quotation removed from its context. He was writing about, “Luke 10:29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’" and about our own, individual responses to that specific question of neighborliness. His salient point is, “Being a neighbor is not a qualification of others, it is their claim on me, nothing else.” That is certainly true.

Given my Thought yesterday and my words on asking questions, however, I could not help but wonder about that sentence above. It may well be true in terms of learning “what obedience is,” but only in the very narrow sense of obedience to God’s commands in those verses of scripture above. The whole story of Cain and Abel is to me a lesson in obedience. Cain’s rather impertinent response to God’s own question about Abel was obviously not an honest question asked to elicit additional information from God. Cain was only trying to obfuscate and deflect any hint of blame.

Was that the intent of that individual in Luke 10, to obfuscate and deflect blame? In the society in which the νομικός (expert in the law) asked the question, there was some validity in the question. The Jews at that time were quite xenophobic. That νομικός might have sincerely been questioning Jesus’ understanding of the word neighbor.

Irrespective of whether or not it was an honest question, it is illustrative to ponder Jesus’ response. Jesus answered that question by offering what we now call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I wonder how many of the questions currently being debated in our own society could and should be answered using the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Christians are called to obey the word of God. Jesus, the Christ, is our perfect exemplar of obedience, “Philippians 2:7 . . . And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.”  

But, how are we to understand our obedience? Jesus told those Jews who believed and tells us to “continue in my word.” He further promises “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." I believe we can only discern ‘the truth’ by questioning. Bonhoeffer wrote “Only in obedience do I know the truth.” I believe a part of my obedience is to question. Only through questioning am I able to winnow the wheat from the tares.

There are a lot of tares in the fields of our society. With the advent of the computer era and especially with the developments of AI, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish wheat from tares. Questioning has become our most effective weapon against the tares of modern, increasingly materialistic society.

Are there inappropriate questions? Cain proved there are. Questions used to obfuscate or deflect blame are by their nature inappropriate. Questions honestly asked to elicit information or to clarify confusion are not only appropriate, they are necessary to allow us to find the truth.

Stay safe, ask the right questions, trust God,

Pastor Ray