TODAY'S DEVOTION ON THE BIBLE
Everyone, whether they know it or not, has a spiritual authority; that is, something upon which they base their beliefs and behavior. It may be a man-made religion, a human philosophy, or a political ideology. It may be themselves or someone else. Still, everyone has a spiritual authority, something or someone by which they determine what they should believe and how they should behave.
How do you decide what is right and wrong? How do you decide what is true and false? How do you decide what you should and shouldn’t do? If it’s a simple matter of personal opinion, then, you are your own spiritual authority. You have also committed the same offense against God that Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden, which resulted in the fall of man. You have usurped the place of God in your life by making yourself rather than God the final arbiter of what is good and evil.
If you are a Christian, then, your spiritual authority should be the Bible. The books of the Bible, the canonical books—those that have measured up as divinely inspired—should be your sole authority for faith and practice. You should believe biblical doctrine and behave according to biblical dictates. For you, what is right, is what the Bible says is right. What is wrong, is what the Bible says is wrong. What is true, is what the Bible says is true. What is false, is what the Bible says is false. What you should do, is what the Bible says you should do. What you should not do, is what the Bible says you should not do. It is really that simple for Christians, who have been called “the people of the Book.”
Don Walton
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