How to Avoid Heresy

Just finished reading through Lamentations 2:1 – 10.  I am reading in the first Bible I bought after I trusted Christ.  It has been rebound twice.  It is the only Bible in which I have ever marked.  Next to Lamentations 2:5, I wrote, “When you disobey the Lord even if you are chosen he becomes your enemy.”  I wrote that because, as you read in the passage the Lord became an enemy of His chosen people, Israel, because they had disobeyed His commands.  When I wrote this I had in mind a connection here between chosen in the Old Testament and chosen or elect in the New Testament.  I did not think much about it at the time just made the connection and moved on.

However, that connection may not be valid.  I assumed that chosen has the same meaning and force when applied to Israel and the Church.  You are aware of the results of assuming.  What I should have done is to validate my observation by turning it into a question, “Does chosen here mean the same thing as it does when applied to the Church?”

I do not have an answer to that question.  Yet.  I stuck my toe in that water for a few minutes this morning in Logos by doing a surface word study on the use of chosen in the New Testament and the Septuagint, looking at what Hebrew words were translated with chosen.  There was a significant amount of data.  To answer the question more accurately, I need to evaluate that data.  It is a whole lot like work, albeit work that I love.

Too often I have approached the scripture like I did with the note on Lamentations 2:5, I have also observed many believers doing the same thing, pastors and leaders included.  2 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we are to be diligent with the Word of God.  There is a process here.  It is like a journey; encapsulated in my experience with Lamentations 2:5.  I need to remind myself daily to hold what I “know” to be true lightly, always being ready to turn that knowledge into a question, which answer is dependent on the data in the Book that has no bottom.