The Bible constantly stresses the importance and value of people and helps us to see the prime importance of relationships – our relationship with God (after all, as the Westminster Catechism reminds us, ‘the chief end of man is to worship God and enjoy Him forever’) and our relationships with other people.

In the book of Genesis, we find the story of God’s relationship with mankind and how even though this relationship is broken through man’s disobedience and sin, God has a plan to restore everything and make everything new in its time. Larry Crabb, whose book ’66 Love Letters’ traces the key love story which runs through every book of the Bible, says that God in Genesis is in essence saying ‘I have a plan and you are invited to my party.’ (’66 Love Letters’, Larry Crabb, P 2) God’s relationship with Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to mention Joseph, all emphasise this plan of redemption and restoration, showing us how even though people may fail God and let Him down, all He is looking for is people who will trust and obey Him, walking in daily relationship with Him. Each Old Testament book shows us more of God’s love and faithfulness: Exodus shows God doing whatever is necessary to carry out His plans, not being thwarted or daunted by the greatest world power of the day (Egypt); Leviticus shows us how holiness has to be a key part of our relationship with God (for He is holy, so we too have to be holy (Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2)); Numbers shows us that relationships must learn to withstand trials and tests; Deuteronomy reminds us that even when we fail and are faithless, God remains faithful (see 2 Tim 2:13). These five books of the Law, known as the Pentateuch, with the Law being known as the Torah in Judaism, give us much information about the history of Israel, but primarily, they show us that God’s story involves a relationship between God and people and that God is working all things together for good.

The Old Testament tells the story of God’s chosen people, Israel, and emphasises the importance of this relationship with God above everything else. The history books (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles) give us glimpses of how this relationship looked at different periods of history: how Israel prospered whenever she followed God’s commandments and lived in humble trust before Him, worshipping Him only, and how often she fell away through rebellion, disobedience and open sin. The books of the Prophets show us God calling His people back, yearning for that intimate relationship to be restored. Books like Hosea and Song of Songs in particular highlight the love relationship between God and His people, epitomised in the image of God as the Bridegroom and Israel (and later the church) His bride. At times, the prophets use the vivid imagery of adultery or prostitution (see Jer 3:1, Ezekiel 16 & 23) to emphasise the deeply personal nature of sin and how this spoils the relationship of love and trust which is God’s plan for every one of us.

Other Old Testament books are deeply personal: Ruth tells the story of deep loyalty and faithfulness in relationships; Esther shows us how one person acting with courage and determination can save a nation. The whole of the Old Testament shows us the value of relationships: Proverbs, for example, gives us good advice on how to get on with people in life, looking at family relationships, relationships with neighbours, relationships with employers and rulers and how to treat God. Psalms is a prayer book demonstrating personal communication between people and God.

When we get to the New Testament, we find that God’s plan of redemption and salvation is set out in 4 gospels (accounts of ‘good news’), each showing us different facets of God’s love and how salvation was worked out through the person of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.The Acts of the Apostles and the New Testament letters continue to teach us more of God’s love, mercy and grace and how He is working everything out in conformity with the purpose of His will (Eph 1:11), a fulfilment finally seen in the book of Revelation. Relationships really do dominate every book of the Bible!

The Bible constantly tells us there is ‘so much more’ to life than what we can experience only on a material level. It paints vivid pictures of this unseen reality, especially in the Prophets, using all kinds of imagery: pictures of dragons and angels (Rev 12), chariots of fire (2 Kings 2:11), bizarre creatures with four faces and four wings and moving wheels (Ezekiel 1)… all of which can seem challenging and frankly strange to us, but there is clearly so much more to life than we can see with our senses, and the Bible challenges us to discover God’s reality as the backdrop for our lives. In fact, it challenges us to see God’s reality as the ultimate reality. In 1 John 5:14 in the Message version of the Bible, we read ‘My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.’ The purpose of the book of Proverbs is described as ‘a manual for living, for learning what’s right and just and fair; to teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality.’ (Prov 1:1-6) Eccl 7:18 says ‘A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it’ and that’s our challenge too, dealing with all of reality – the invisible, eternal, spiritual sides of reality as well as the visible, temporal and physical sides, dealing with all of it and not just a piece of it. So much of the Bible challenges our shallow view of reality, like Isaiah crying out to all those who worship idols instead of the true God: ‘Make them face God-reality!’ (Is 44:11) The Bible reveals to us God-reality, which is really just another way of saying that God is the ultimate authority on life, the master on reality because He created everything that we see (John 1:1-3).

If we want to know how to get somewhere, we consult a map.

If we want to know how to put together a piece of flat pack furniture, we consult the instructions.

If we want to wire a house, we hire an electrician.

We go to the experts on these things or read their advice because we know that we can’t manage to do those things on our own. In the same way, if we want to know how to live well, we have to consult God’s manual and we have to accept that the Maker’s take on reality is going to be wiser than our understanding. In our Bible studies on 1 Corinthians, we’ve been exploring the differences between God’s wisdom and human wisdom (see 1 Cor 1:18-31, 1 Cor 2), seeing that our whole way of thinking has to be transformed because God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom and His weakness is more powerful than our strength. God’s reality is way, way beyond ours: as Paul cries out to the Romans, ‘Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!’ (Rom 11:33)

Last night’s service started by listening to some theme tunes from films: it was surprising how quickly people could identify a film title from just a few notes of a famous theme tune, such as Jaws or Indiana Jones. Musical themes are a kind of ‘shorthand’, plugging us in to the mood and atmosphere of a film, instantly helping us to identify with the theme of the film (the menace of Jaws or the swashbuckling action of Indiana Jones, for example.)

In our quest to answer questions about ‘The Bigger Picture’ of life and to understand how the Bible helps us to understand God’s story, we looked at some of the key themes of the Bible, identifying these as the ‘Three Rs’ (not the school ones of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic), but:

1. Reality
2. Relationships
3. Rules

Reality

Reality is defined as ‘the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.’ What’s real? What’s not real? Philosophers have debated these things for centuries, but the Bible deals with God’s reality as well as man’s. Most people in the Western world define reality as anything they can determine with their five senses, but the Bible insists that there is so much more to life than simply the material and physical. It contrasts the visible and the invisible, the temporal and the eternal, the physical and the spiritual. It tells us of a Creator God who is without beginning or end (Hebrews 7:3), a God who has always existed and who always will (see Genesis 1:1, Revelation 1:8, Deut 33:27), a God who is transcendent, wholly independent of the material universe, beyond all physical laws. It tells us of a reality which involves angels and demons, a reality where the heavenly realms are as real as the seas, mountains, lakes, volcanoes and terra firma of the earth. It tells us of life and death, not only in the physical realms we see, but in the spiritual realms we can’t see, showing us that God’s plan for His creation is for us to be with Him always: He’s set eternity in the human heart (Eccl 3:11) and has made us for an ongoing relationship with Him. The Bible challenges us to see a reality that is invisible to the naked eye, a reality that can only be perceived by faith.

Relationships

The Bible has been described as the ‘greatest love story ever told’, and it’s important that we understand that relationships are at the heart of this book. One of the key points of God’s reality is that relationships matter, that people matter, that God loves people and wants to be in a relationship with them. The love story of the Bible shows us that God loves us with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3) and has done everything possible required to make it possible for us to be in a right relationship with Him, restoring us when sin spoilt that relationship. It shows us God’s unfailing love (Ps 13:5, Ps 33:5, Ps 130:7),how His faithfulness and love are the bedrock of all relationships (Deut 7:9, Ps 36:5, Ps 57:10) and gives us insight into how all relationships are at the heart of life.

Right at the start of the Creation story, we read that after God created Adam, He said ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ (Gen 2:18) and the rest of the Bible is in some respects a development of that theme, a development of the crucial fact, often forgotten in today’s society which relies so much on mechanical things and which prizes individualism so much, that people matter and that relationships are a key part of being human, with our relationship with God the essential ‘missing ingredient’ of life.

Rules

Most people think of the Bible as a book of rules, such as the Ten Commandments in Exodus, the ‘Golden Rule’ in Matthew 7:12, all the lists in Leviticus, with its prohibitions about what to wear, what to eat, who to marry, what to do if you have an infectious skin disease and so on, the rules given in Proverbs about how to live with your neighbours and conduct business. Few of us like rules, which can explain our dismissal of the Bible! However, when we’re learning about rules in the Bible, we can’t divorce these from what we’ve learnt about God’s reality or about God’s love and His desire for relationships; we need God’s Spirit to bring life to His Word so that we understand God’s heart, not just the actual words (see 2 Cor 3:6). God’s rules are not meant to bind us but to lead us to holiness and freedom and to show us, above all, that we cannot reach God on our own simply by following rules. Rules give us boundaries; they also clearly explain to us what is right and what is wrong, but they also point us to a Saviour who is the only sinless one (see Gal 3:19, Rom 7:7, 19, Rom 3:20-24).

Ultimately, the rules in the Bible show us God’s purity and holiness and our unworthiness, but they also point to the One who freely offers us holiness and righteousness (2 Cor 5:20-21). Without these rules, we would not know how God is to be approached; these rules are for our highest good to lead us back to that relationship with God which is all-important.

CPD (continual professional development) is the buzzword in many workplaces these days, reminding us that we never stop learning. It’s easy to take a test and then sit back, having passed, and proceed to forget all we have learned. Many jobs nowadays are aware of the need to keep on learning and provide regular opportunities for development.

Heb 10:23 reminds us that we must hold unswervingly to the faith we profess and this idea of navigating a ship, holding it on course, reminds us that we have a responsibility to develop in our faith, keeping true to God. Phil 2:12 tells us we must continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. So often, we think of faith as the ‘finished product,’ but just as all the recent wedding preparations were works in progress until the wedding day, so too we are works in progress. 1 Cor 3:1-2 reminds us of the need to mature from spiritual infancy to adulthood, being prepared to change and learn from every opportunity to grow which God sends our way (often disguised as trials!) 1 Cor 3:10-15 reminds us that the only lasting foundation for our lives is Christ, but we are to build with care. Often, bad habits can creep in and we are unaware of the problems, but 1 Tim 1:18-20 reminds us that our faith can be shipwrecked – which happens when we steer off course – if we do not align ourselves constantly with God’s Word.

SatNavs often chide us with the phrase ‘Turn around when possible’ when we have deviated from their routes. Ps 119:59-60 reminds us that we must turn back to God’s statutes when we have strayed. Many of the psalms are prayers asking God to search us and test us (see Ps 26:2, Ps 139:23-24, for example). We need more than a superficial glance; we need God to look deep within our hearts, even as an MOT on a car requires thorough testing. God’s purpose in testing us is restoration, but we need to be willing to hear the voice of the Spirit and return always to our first love.

‘Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3’ is the refrain often heard when testing sound levels on a microphone. Testing is a common feature of everyday life these days: when doing electrical jobs in a house, it’s wise to test a live current with a neon screwdriver, for example, to check that it’s working before relying on it; a car has to have an MOT after three years to ensure it’s still roadworthy; portable electrical appliances have to be tested annually. Our society doesn’t just test things either: children are constantly tested at school; schools are regularly tested by OFSTED; most jobs require ongoing professional development.

In the Christian life, there is a test we have to do regularly, for 1 Cor 11:28 reminds us to examine ourselves thoroughly before we take Communion. The word means to test, to scrutinise, to prove and we have to reflect, consider, look back and evaluate how we are doing in the faith on a regular basis (see also 2 Cor 13:5).

The opportunity to take the emblems of bread and wine gives us pause. We are to consider, confess and consume. What we have done wrong or failed to do must be confessed to God, but 1 John 1:9 assures us of forgiveness. We are not to test ourselves simply to avoid taking Communion, but to confess and then consume the symbols God has given us which remind us that our salvation is not dependent on our efforts, but wholly available through Christ’s sacrifice.

Tonight’s Bible study looked at the difficult topic of church discipline (1 Cor 5:1-13). The immediate cause for concern in this chapter is sexual immorality (a man was sleeping with his stepmother and seemed to think this was perfectly acceptable, as did others in the church, presumably because in their ‘enlightened’ state, the Corinthians felt they were so spiritual, what they actually did physically had no spiritual consequences.) Sexual purity has always been an issue in the church. In 1 Cor 6:18-20, Paul shows us why: all other sins are committed ‘outside the body’, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body, which as Christians is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Biblical view of sex (later expounded in 1 Cor 7) is that of sexual purity outside of marriage and sexual faithfulness within marriage; marriage between a man and a woman is the only Biblical endorsement of sex. This issue is as relevant today as it was when Paul wrote this letter, for our society does not recognise this Biblical view of sex and many inside the church do not live according to God’s laws.

It’s often said that ‘a sin is a sin is a sin’, meaning that all sin should be judged in the same way. Whilst it is true that we have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23) and that in that sense, any sin means we cannot reach God’s mark, it is clear that not all sins have the same consequences (see Ex 32:30, Ex 22:1-14, Num 35:6-34, Ezek 23, John 19:11, Luke 19:5-9, Luke 12:47-48); our law makes provision for this in regard to murder and manslaughter, showing that intent, motives and attitude have to be considered as well as actual behaviour. Paul is concerned because the Corinthians are treating sin lightly; it is for this reason that he challenges the church to deal with this behaviour by actually expelling (or excommunicating) the immoral brother.

This course of action should never be taken lightly. The Bible urges us to speak with people privately and seek to resolve matters (see Matt 18:15-20). Even Paul is clear that the drastic measures to be taken (whereby a person is ‘handed over to Satan‘) is to be done with the express purpose of their restoration (see 1 Cor 5:5, 2 Cor 2:5-11). He is also clear to differentiate between believers and non-believers (1 Cor 5:9-11). Nonetheless, there must be a clear difference in lifestyles between those who profess the name of Christ and those who do not. This does not apply only to sexual sins (as the rest of the chapter makes clear) and help must be given to all those struggling with sin (see Gal 6:1). Nonetheless, we cannot dilute God’s Word and must acknowledge the high standards it proclaims and endeavour to live by its guidelines, in discipline as in all matters.