Gnats, camels, and a new creation!

I have just been reading a series of questions and answers on a blogging platform asking whether the bible should be taken literally or not. The question is important certainly, and the answers, from whatever camp, were interesting and informative, most of the time. But the debate predictably went to-and-fro without any resolution, and with contributors getting sometimes quite hot under the collar when they were being contradicted, accusing their opponents of this and that. Then, after pondering all this for a while, I couldn’t help thinking about Paul’s instruction to the Galatians 6:15; ‘Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What really counts is a new creation.’ And, as my mind wandered further, I thought of Jesus’ seven woes directed toward the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in Mathew 23, of which verse 24 is one of my favourite put-down lines of all time; ‘You have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness... You blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.’ In other words, maybe, just maybe, these contributors were missing the point. 


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