Walk the Line

Did you know that reading the bible had its own temptation? We are always in danger of not reading what is for us in the text and reading what we want into the text.

What does it mean to “walk the line”?

Walking the line illustrates the task of the reading to discover what God has actually said in His Word.

• The line itself represents what God actually says in His Word:
• To go above the line means to add something that is not really there – to say more than what God’s Word says. Going above the line means to add something that God did not say. It leads to error often in the form of legalism. Think of Eve in the garden, the command was “do not eat!” She responded to the serpent with an addition to the word, “and even touch.” Oh, How far such small steps from the truth can make us fall!
• To fall below the line means to leave something out that is there – to not be wholly true and faithful to what God’s Word is saying. It leaves something out of the truth of what God says and often leads to liberalism. The phase in the Old Testament which best illustrates this way is when it was repeatedly said of Israel, “and each man did what was right in his own eyes.”

1) Carefully discerning and understanding what God’s Word actually says.

2) Carefully checking you're understanding by Prayer, and Accountability to Christian community.

The Importance of Staying on the Line

1. Its shows respect for God’s Word

2. We will drink from the pure waters of the word by walking the line.

a. Right from Genesis 1, we find that God’s words are beyond compare. From there and through the rest of the Bible we see that His Word is powerful, life-giving, good, and certain.

Our Task

We have an awesome privilege and responsibility to read God’s words and not our own imaginations and traditions. Like Timothy, we have been charged with a sacred duty to “rightly divide the word of Truth.”

What does walking on the line require?

· A commitment to God’s Word

· A Love of God’s Truth

· A passion for God

· A Diligence and care in handling it and living it out faithfully.