Intent vs. Interpretation

I'm gonna pick on my buddy Will here for a minute.

Back in January of 2010, I wrote a short story entitled "Their Only Date" (link is to Facebook). If you haven't read it, please do, because I'm about to spoil the ending for you, and once that's out of the bag, the story just really loses whatever impact it has.

Seriously, you need to read it to get what I'm talking about here.

Last chance before I ruin everything.

And now it is on your own head.

Some days or whatever after I had written that story, Will and I were doing what we do - not very much at all - and he brought it up, saying that he had enjoyed it. He went on to tell me that he had appreciated not only the effort I'd put into it, but the emotional honesty behind it. He told me that he could see me working through some then-recent heartbreak by expressing my feelings in the story of two people who seemed to be perfect for each other and were just fated to not be together for whatever small reason. Though the story itself is funny (or at least I meant it to be funny - no telling whether it actually is or not), the pain was real enough, and by addressing my own pain through a filter of humor, he could see how I was taking a big step on the road to my own personal recovery.

I sat and listened as Will expounded on his theory behind the meaning of my small literary effort. Once he was done, I let him in on the deeper truth behind the story.

"Uhh... it's about nerd feuds, man..."

"Wait... What? Are you serious? Is that it?"

"Well... Yeah. I mean... I'm flattered that you can see that much depth in something that I wrote, but I promise you, man... at the end of the day, it's about nerds. The chick likes Star Trek and the dude likes Star Wars, so they can't be with each other. They're nerds."

"So the whole thing is just an elaborately told joke?"

"Yeah."

We sat in silence for a second as Will let that revelation sink in.

"Well, that's disappointing! I liked my version a lot better."

And like I said - I was impressed that he saw that much depth in something that held no more meaning to me than to say that sometimes people get silly about their passions, which is something that anybody who knows me can readily attest to.

Before I go any further, I'd like to make something extraordinarily clear, just in case there's anybody reading who doesn't know this just yet: I'm not a "Biblical scholar." I can't read Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic. I don't know all the theories about the sources and dating of the Biblical text. When it comes to the academic approach to the text of the Scriptures, I am definitely not what anyone could call with any degree of truth a "well-educated individual."

But just the same... I know how to read my Bible, and I make a regular habit of doing just that.

And as I continue to read my Bible and grow in my own understanding of what it means, a question keeps coming to my mind over and over and over again: Is it possible that we're making Christianity a little bit more complicated than Jesus actually meant for it to be?

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- Matthew 22:34-40

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.

- John 13:34-35

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.

- James 2:8

But whoever loves God is known by God.

- I Corinthians 8:3

I was in Searcy a couple weeks back and got to talking pretty late with some of the fellas. As usually happens with us in those 2 AM think tanks, we got to talking about what it means to actually be Christian the way God wants us to be Christian.

The consensus was there among all of us that there is nothing more to it than to Love God and Love Others. We all felt pretty confident in saying that, and we all felt that there was more than enough Scripture to back us up in our belief.

The challenging part of the discussion, however, was in determining what it actually means to Love God and Love Others. I feel safe in saying that this has been the same unique challenge for all Christendom over the past two millennia.

Again, I feel the need to stress to you that I am by no means a Biblical scholar.

But all the same... I think I can say, with some pretty solid ideological and Scriptural footing, that we have collectively fallen short of the intent because we've been so busy focusing on the interpretation.

Denominations argue and bicker amongst themselves while the hungry remain hungry and the naked remain naked.

Fights over the timing and purpose of baptism confuse and frustrate those considering Christianity to the point that they abandon the Truth altogether.

A man enters a church for the first time in three decades and sits by himself because he doesn't have the right clothes on.

A church cancels a job interview with one of God's most dedicated, loving, and humble servants because of a controversial yet Biblically sound view that can't even be seen by the public anymore, just in case anybody's offended by the truth.

I realize that I'm not really saying anything new this week. As you probably figured out from "Their First Date," a lot of what I write is a big theatrical presentation centered around one simple idea. And unfortunately, I don't really think that this is gonna do a lot of good in the first place - the type of people I'm actually the maddest at don't read my blog, and even if they did, they're not the kind of folks who are going to accept the opinion of a guy who thinks it's OK to wear tie-dyed shirts to church on Sunday morning. This, of course, is part of why I'm mad at them in the first place, and so the whole cycle just repeats itself in a sort of passive-aggressive standoff.

But I do hope that it can encourage you to be a part of the solution. And more than that, I hope it will remind me to do the same.

Like I said... I'm not really getting at anything earth-shattering here... I really just want to see people stop screwing it up.

Questions of interpretation matter. I get that. I really do. In fact, it's been kind of a hot topic lately with some of the folks I talk to, specifically in address to the question of whether or not homosexuality is a sin. If the Bible has been misinterpreted and homosexuality isn't actually a sin, then hey, we've got a lot of stuff to re-think. But if the interpretation of Scripture has been accurate, at least in the broad strokes, over the past 5,000 years, I think we're pretty safe in saying that yeah, homosexuality is still a sin.

But here's the kicker: whether it is or isn't, we're still called to Love God and Love Others. That's the point. That's what it's all about. That's why God created us, that's why Jesus came down, that's why He died, that's why He was resurrected, that's why anything that is, is.

Love God, Love Others.

If your interpretation says anything other than that, I've got news for you: YOUR INTERPRETATION IS WRONG.