The Person of the Bible > The principles of the Bible

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28-29)

Over the last 21 weeks, we have walked verse by verse through Jesus’s most famous sermon: the Sermon on the Mount. Along the way, I’ve pulled out many “biblical principles” and optional practices for applying those principles to your work. But I’m always wary of doing that. Because I know my temptation (and yours) to trade a relationship with God for a relationship with “biblical principles.”

In his exceptional book, With, Skye Jethani warns that, “Discovering and applying [biblical] principles does not actually require a relationship with God….the Christian can put these new principles into practice without God being involved. God can be set aside while we remain in control of our lives. He may be praised, thanked, and worshipped for giving us his wise precepts for life, but as with an absentee watchmaker, God’s present participation is altogether optional.”

The first time I read that quote, I felt more convicted than a couple caught in an affair on a jumbotron at a Coldplay concert. I saw myself in the Pharisees Jesus called out with these words: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40).

In other words, while God’s Word is good, complete, and holy, it is primarily a means to an end—namely a personal relationship with God through Christ. The Person of the Bible is infinitely greater than any principle from the Bible. 

And this is why I think the people responded to the Sermon on the Mount the way they did. Today’s passage says that, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

In this devotional series, I have sought to apply God’s Word as faithfully as I can to our work. But I have not done so on my own authority, but Christ’s. So as we close, I beg you to look to him for ultimate wisdom and guidance on how you should practically respond to the Sermon on the Mount.

Specifically, let me encourage you to find 20 minutes this week to read the Sermon on the Mount in one sitting (Matthew 5-7). And ask the “One who has authority” how specifically he is calling you to respond to that sermon at work. Because he alone has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Follow him, not just his principles, today.