Daily Devotional April 17 - Knowing the Bible is power

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." Matthew 22:29

Jesus was talking to the Sadducces, the Jewish religious sect of the times. They were having a discussion about who the wife would be with in heaven if she married seven times and all of her husbands died. The key point that I want to make is that we are in error when we don't know the scriptures and trust in the power of God. Half of the battles that we have with our fellow Christians, and others, is that sometimes neither one of us has the scriptural knowledge to adjudicate a decision or a judgement.

Jesus says, "ye do err, not knowing the scriptures." Well if the religious sect of the times didn't know the scriptures, what makes us think we can know the scriptures? The religious sect of the times were caught up deep into the letter of the law and that law had been altered to add many man made rules and regulations that were not part of God's clear teaching. When you make up laws of your own, you cannot expect them to have the power of a law of God, and they don't.

Today you and I are free to receive the law of grace and to abide in those laws and live them out through faith. We can see what God intended and then live it because the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. We can know the scriptures and the power of God because God is in us. We cannot blame God because a group of people built a religion unto themselves. We can do the same thing today. Many denominations make rules for themselves that have nothing to do with faith or following the doctrines of the Bible. The rules in themselves are of no great consequence, but trusting in the rules of the Church can steer us from the spirit of the laws that God gave to us. More times than not the trouble with church splits can be traced to church rules, not God laws.

Today people are willing to argue about a point, whether denominationally motivated or not, without having the biblical knowledge to make a sensible, godly argument. I believe the Word of God and if there is a clear issue and someone wants to argue with me and does not know the Word of God, I decline. Just as when unbelievers, atheist and agnostics want to argue about the power of God and they deny or talk down the power of God, I also decline. Because I know the scriptures are true and the power of God is real.