Hammer on Anvil '

Think of somebody who is very close to you - a family member or friend.  What are the traits that describe them?  Their interests, quirks, and personality.  Now pick five things that you feel are integral to who they are.  My wife, for example, (1) laughs a lot, (2) loves everybody, (3) enjoys travel, (4) is right brained (that’s the artistic side), and (5) loves Jesus.  These traits define who she is.  If you were to take away even one of these traits, she would not be the same person.

Now picture a simple chair.  It has four legs, an area to sit on, and a back.  If you take away the back, it can’t rightly be described as a chair.  It’s really more of a stool at that point.  If you take away one of the legs, it will still function and will still be a chair, but its usefulness will have been seriously diminished.  Take away one more leg and you have a big problem.  And if you take out the area that you sit on, then calling it a chair would be a joke.  The primary purpose of a chair, after all, it to provide a place to sit.

Everything and everybody is made up of a combination of traits.  Some of these traits are integral.  You can’t make a root beer float without root beer; it’s just not possible.  Some of these traits are more like accessories – nice, but not necessary.  I like ketchup on my burger, but if you took that away, it wouldn’t be any less of a burger.

As Christians, we have a responsibility to avoid subtraction when dealing with the Bible and the character of God.  There are parts that are absolutely integral.  Some examples:

- Jesus is the only way to Heaven (John 14:6)

- Jesus is the Son of God and is part of the Holy Trinity (John 10:30)

- We are saved by faith (Galatians 2:16)

- True faith is expressed by following Christ (Matthew 7:21-23)

- Above all, we are called to love (Matthew 22:36-40)

Taking away even one of these would be like taking away the part of a chair that you sit on.  You might have MOST of a chair, but you do not have a chair.  And calling it a chair will not make it one.

And then there are the “accessory” traits of the Bible.  These are the areas that most often separate different denominations of Christianity.  Are the accessories important?  Absolutely.  After all, we want to believe and follow the Truth in its entirety.  But the accessories also are not integral.  They should not divide the Body of Christ.  In the middle ages, there was a debate among priests about how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.  Seriously, I’m not joking.

Like anything else, there is an area where the line becomes blurry.  Faith vs. works.  When and how baptism should be done.  Predestination.  What I would advise for the blurry areas is that you take the time to look into it for yourself.

Subtraction can be very dangerous when dealing with Christianity.  We don’t want to find ourselves following someone we call Christ who does not have each and every integral part of who Christ is.  So keep subtraction in mind when you consider 2 Corinthians 13:5a, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”