Who loves putting a puzzle together? Life is like a box of puzzle pieces that each tries to sort and arrange for himself. Everyone is given a different box in this puzzle entitled “Life.” Some of the pieces are the same in each box, some are different. No picture comes with this box, though many claim they have figured out or know what it is going to be.
When the theology of two godly people is different it begins a controversy. Both can’t be right. Even though both use particular puzzle pieces straight from scripture to back up their picture claims, they use different scriptures for some reason and rule out others for another reason (“because the audience is Old Testament Jews, not New Testament church,” or whatever). Some descend into the finer points of translation of Hebrew or Greek, splitting hairs to make their theological point.
God doesn’t give everyone the same understanding. That’s why one’s concept of the same scripture is different from another’s. The scripture comes from Him and the understanding comes from Him. Each person is responsible for what God has given him, and cannot judge his brother for not seeing things his way, for understanding does not come from intelligence or learning, but from God (Luke 24:45). The uniqueness of each individual is God’s design, not their own choosing. “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?” (I Corinthians 4:7)
What is the puzzle you are grappling with? There is no end of issues to take sides on. Ask any librarian who must help people on both sides of an issue find material to prove their point. From free will and election to universalism and limited atonement each pulls out his Bible to prove his point. They have many of the same puzzle pieces, but put them in different places, and in the gaps where no piece is they have drawn their own lines.
Why would God write such a book that kept people grappling over it for thousands of years? If they’d agreed, they’d probably have stopped searching. How could we appreciate our infinite, omniscient, almighty God if He didn’t continue to challenge us to keep reaching beyond our comfort zone of understanding? Wake up.
And watch. Someone you once thought was on the different side of an issue you may meet on a different mountain in this same range. The issue was bigger than both thought it was.
Obviously God allows misunderstanding. The disciples thought they chose Christ: “We have found the Messiah.” (John 1:41) Later Christ tells them “Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you…” (John 15:16)
Meanwhile we’ll each keep working with the pieces God has given us. We can hoard our findings or share them. As we hoard, we continue in the darkness of our own misunderstanding. But as we share, it opens us up to the spotlights of critics. What better way to stretch our minds and see more clearly.
The picture is bigger than anyone thought it was.
from Consider the Raven c2019, p.44-45
2 Responses to Puzzle Pieces of Life: Why Don’t We All Believe the Same Thing?
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Virginia Williams
November 8, 2019 at 2:58 amIs this working?
Bryant J Williams III
November 20, 2019 at 12:55 amVirginia,
Would not I Corinthians 12:4-11 or Ephesians 4:1-16 help at this point? It would seem that each believer is at a different point in their walk with Christ. Their background both in education, life, etc. would be a filter for good or for ill in the understanding of any passage.
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
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