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Fighting with Locked Suitcases
In The Last Word, N.T. Wright discusses how in many circles and particularly in Christian circles we use shorthand phrases to convey a larger truth. As an example he gives shows us how we use the phrase "the atonement." He says:
This phrase (the atonement) is rare in the Bible itself; instead, we find things like "the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures"; "God so loved the world that he gave his only son," and so on. But if we are to discuss the atonement, it is easier to do so with a single phrase, assumed to "contain" all these sentences... (p. 24)
How true. I so often blurt out short phrases like this and use them amongst those who have a common understanding of what these phrases mean. But, Wright continues:
...we should never forget that the point of doing so, like the point of carrying belongings in a suitcase, is that what has been been packed away can then be unpacked and put to use in the new location. (pp. 24-25)
I am guilty of far too often forgetting to unpack these phrases. Particularly when talking to those who may not have the same understanding of the shorthand I am using.
Too much debate about scriptural authority has had the form of people hitting one another with locked suitcases. It is time to unpack our shorthand doctrines, to lay them out and inspect them. Long years in a suitcase may have made some of the contents go moldy. They will benefit from fresh air and perhaps a hot iron. (p. 25)
I am undone. I am guilty of this not only in debates on the authority of scripture (as Wright puts it "God's Authority Exercised through Scripture" p. 23), but in many other debates. Too often I spend my time beating people over the head with a locked suitcase rather than taking the time to unpack my thoughts and words. In the future, I will demonstrate more patience and love for my neighbor by unpacking the suitcase and giving those ideas some fresh air and the occasional iron.
