Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
--John 17:17
Jesus prayed the words of today's short Scripture reading on the night before He was executed by crucifixion. He didn't rage at the unfairness of what was about to take place. He didn't point fingers or assess blame. He didn't do the "Oh, woe is me!" routine. He didn't invite His followers to join him in a pity party, and neither did He become a victim of a depressed resignation to His fate.
No, He had something else on His mind. Most precisely, He had His followers on His mind. He wants them to be made holy, to be sanctified. And lies, half-truths, misconceptions, pie crust promises (easily made and just as easily broken) and what have you are not going to accomplish that sanctification. What it's going to take is the truth, and not just any truth; it takes the truth of the Word of God.
For hundreds of years, the scholarly and the not-so-scholarly have battled over the Bible. Opinions run deep, and, in some sad instances, have become divisive. Left to our owns opinions and conclusions, we may get it wrong -- all wrong!
But it's not our word about the Word. It's the Word, period. And the question is: are we going to continue to debate it or be sanctified by it?
PD
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