part of the turn

Part of my study on Colossians has me working through a commentary by N.T. Wright on Colossians and Philippians. As far as commentaries go, I find it quite good. A nice mix of readability and technical detail. My only quibble so far is that it does not actually contain the text of the passage being written about. Wright mentions that the lack of blocks of the passage being studied is by design. The purpose is to encourage the reader to read the commentary with a Bible close by. I appreciate the intention but I prefer to be able to constantly look both at the text and the commentary and I find this easier to do when both are on the same page.  Today I read about Wright’s thoughts on the application of “ancient text to the modern situation”. He says,

Each mature Christian has, of course, the responsibility to ‘test all things’. But Christian trust is a corporate possession. The church is the context within which we should expect to have wrong ideas gently corrected and right ones gently suggested, and where we in turn may contribute to the same activities. This will mean active membership in a local church and perhaps a variety of Christian groups; it should also involve careful  listening to Christians of other backgrounds and periods of history.

And speaking of the messy task of biblical interpretation, Wright says,

It is part of God’s plan for his people that they should wrestle, in reading the Bible, with puzzles and problems that a library of mere timeless truths would never produce, and thus to grow into  a maturity appropriate for fully human beings. 

I like the flow of this explanation. To me, it seems that we are better served by deeply engaging both the Bible and each other then we would ever be served by a book of, “timeless truths”. Discipleship is more about growing in love for God and each other then making sure we have all our doctrinal ducks in a row.