- Perhaps if we are to have a favorite verse, it would be worth picking out one (or several) that shed light on the whole.
Someone recently asked what my favorite passage of Scripture is. It was for a public purpose and would, one way or another, likely be announced to others.
I was reluctant to answer.
Dennis Kinlaw, decades ago, was sitting in a class with the great Otto Piper of Princeton. Piper started off class one day saying that it was inappropriate to underline passages in their Bibles, for it was not their duty to decide which parts of Scripture were more important than other parts. Kinlaw said he sheepishly closed his Bible and pushed it to the side. Piper continued: “You don’t have a right to choose which portions are the Word of God. What you don’t underline is the Word of God just as much as what you do underline. You need to hear the whole Word…not just the parts that fit your particular theology…you will never know the Word of God unless you know it wholly.”
Hard to suggest a verse more meaningful than others for yourself after hearing that teaching.
Or this. Remember when it was all the rage for Christians to have a “life verse?” Popular evangelical author Philip Yancey had a brother named Marshall who delighted in chiming in when asked in groups. Yep, he would say, 1 Chronicles 26:18. Quizzically, no one would have a clue. And then he would quote: “At Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar.” Or, if he wanted to test the inquisitor another way he would choose Psalm 137:9: “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”
Dark humor, that.
Still, someone wanted an answer from me on the favorite verse challenge, and, reluctantly, I answered.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under the bowl, but on the lamp stand so that it can give light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven.
I have just finished doing some writing on the Beatitudes. I am glad that our Lord didn’t stop with these character qualities but, rather, talked about how they needed to be applied to the world. So, with the Beatitudes understood, Jesus said, know that you are the salt of the earth and…the light of the world.
John Wesley, commenting on the passage, said that
“Your holiness makes you as conspicuous as the sun in the sky. You cannot hide your Christian character. Love cannot be hidden any more than can light. Least of all, it cannot be hidden when it shines forth in action. When you exercise yourself in a labor of love, in any kind of good work, you are observed. We may as well try to hide a city as to hide a Christian. It is the purpose of God that every Christian should be in open view. We are to give light to all that are in the house.”
So, perhaps if we are to have a favorite verse, it would be worth picking out one (or several) that shed light on the whole; that help illuminate all the verses from Genesis to Revelation. All the caveats from Piper to the snarkiness of Marshall Yancey and beyond ought to meaningfully provide corrections and hesitations.
But, still…what’s your favorite verse?
