Closing the Gap: Right Answers Are Not Enough

 He knew the right answer. Jesus said so. His struggle was not in what he knew; it was in how he lived. There was a gap between what he knew and what he did, between the truth he knew and how that truth shaped his life. It seems this man's problem is one we all experience. 

The gospel of Luke tells the story in Luke 10:25-37. A lawyer questioned Jesus: "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25) Rather than answering the man's question, Jesus invited him to answer his own question, based on what he knew of the Mosaic law. After all, as a lawyer, his training was in the study of the law. Based on his training, the man gave the right answer: love God, love neighbor. 

Love is the right answer. The essence of eternal life - the life that is eternal, God's kind of life - is love. Love God, love neighbor. These two are inseparable. We love God by loving our neighbor. We taste eternal life by choosing to love our neighbor. 

The lawyer's problem - and ours! - is not in knowing what to do. He knew the right answer - as do we. His struggle - and ours - is in living the truth he knew. He struggled to do what he knew to do. He struggled to allow the truth he knew to guide what he did and shape how he lived. 

The gap - the gap between knowing and doing, between having the right answer and doing the right thing - is a part of our human condition. 

The gap in the lawyer's experience is reflected in his original question. It is also reflected in his follow up question: "who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29) The gospel writer identified the lawyer's motivation in asking the second question: "wanting to justify himself" (Luke 10:29). The lawyer knew in his heart that, although he knew the right answer, he was not doing what he knew to do. He wanted Jesus to make his inner discomfort go away. He wanted Jesus to reassure him. He wanted Jesus to tell him what he was doing was enough. 

He should have stopped when Jesus assured him he had given the right answer. 

Jesus answered the lawyer's second question with a parable - the parable we know as The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).  This familiar parable speaks to the heart of our struggle.

• The question "who is my neighbor?" was the lawyer's attempt to define who it was he was required to love. How large did he have to draw his circle of love? How large did it have to be? The traditional rabbinical answer to the question was "other Jews." In other words, the man's circle of love had to include other Jews, but not anyone who was not a Jew. The standard answer among the lawyer's circle was "those who followed the law the way they interpreted it." All others were excluded, even if they were Jews. Our answer - like the lawyer's - is generally "those like me." The question "who is my neighbor?" is just another way of asking "Who can I exclude?" 
• The man in the story who was attacked and left for dead was unidentified. He was stripped of everything that might have indicated his identity. He was simply another person, hurting, in need, and unable to help himself. Our response to another - loving or excluding, accepting or rejecting - is generally based on something about the other person: nationality, group identity, social standing, economic status, educational level, religious belief, sexual orientation. Jesus's parable teaches us that our response to another is determined by something about us, not about the other. Our acceptance or rejection of another is a reflection of what is in our heart. 
• The hero of the story was unexpected - a despised Samaritan. The expected hero would have been the priest or Levite, those holding the highest social standings in their religious world. This shift in the hero role drives home the point: what you know and believe is not important unless it translates into compassion for others. The truth we know has little value unless it guides what we do and shapes how we live. 
• Jesus turned the lawyer's question around, asking "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" (Luke 10:36) Jesus's question changed the identity of the neighbor from being the one who received love to the one who gave love. 
• Love is expressed in compassion. It is seen in how we respond to a person in need: awareness, personal involvement, sharing of what we have and what we know, giving our financial resources, helping the other "get back on his feet."

Like the lawyer, we know the teaching of scripture. We can give the right answer. Our struggle - like his - is in living the truth we know. We have a gap between what we know and what we do.

And, like the lawyer, we are subconsciously aware of the gap and uncomfortable because of it. Like him, we attempt to find ways to ease our discomfort with the gap. 

One way we deal with the gap is through doing more Bible study. We who call ourselves Christians love to do Bible study. We are always looking for another resource to use to study the Bible. Now don't misunderstand what I am saying. I am a strong advocate for good Bible study. I am, after all, a teacher and spiritual guide. I love to lead Bible studies. The issue is not Bible study. The issue is the purpose of our study - our objective in studying the Bible. 

Too often, our Bible study is the way we validate what we already believe. Rather than allowing the truth of God to shape what we believe, we use the Bible to justify what we already believe. It is interesting how often we who call ourselves Christian proclaim "the Bible says" to justify our attitudes toward and exclusion of others. We don't approve of something about the other, so we do not consider them a neighbor we are to love. We use the Bible to validate our choice not to love them. When we use Bible study to validate what we already believe, we make "right belief" (orthodoxy) the litmus test for acceptance and belonging. The way we read the Bible broadens the gap rather closing it. 

Good Bible study closes the gap between what we know and what we do. Good Bible study will produce two things in our lives. 

First, good Bible study will help us know God and the ways of God. Jesus - how he lived, what he taught - is the primary source for knowing God and the ways of God. Knowing God and the ways of God nurtures our relationship with God. It guides how we think about God and how we relate to God. 

The second thing good Bible study produces is spiritual transformation. Good Bible study is foundational to our spiritual growth. According to Paul, spiritual transformation comes through the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2; see also Ephesians 4:22-24 and Colossians 3:9-11). Learning the truth of God transforms the way we think. The transformation in how and what we think leads to a transformation of our hearts - the attitudes and spirit out of which we live. The transformation of our hearts leads to a change in how we live and what we do. The truth we learn guides what we do and shapes how we live. Of course, this entire transformation process is the work of God's Spirit in our lives. 

Unless our Bible study guides what we do and shapes how we live, it is pointless. It becomes just another way of justifying ourselves, avoiding the gap between what we know and what we do. It becomes another way to avoid loving our neighbor. 

Bible study - done right - closes the gap between what we know and how we live. It is foundational to becoming more like Christ and to living the way Jesus lived.