We have an uncanny ability to use pious and theological reasoning to explain away our responsibility to do the things that we don’t want to do, all the while cloaking our sinful inhibition in a facade of Christian maturity and conscientiousness.
Søren Kierkegaard: “The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
That, or we find sophisticated ways of interpretating ourselves out of the Bible’s demands. As Søren says later, this is “the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.”
He continues, “Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?’”
In other words, if your Christianity doesn’t make you uncomfortable or require much sacrifice, your Christianity is probably not that of Christ himself. It is probably not that of the Bible.
We have fashioned a God in our own image, rather than us resembling his.
Kirk E. Miller 