Mind The Gap

For a few weeks at the end of last year, we were in England. We traveled on the London Underground and saw the famous phrase warning of danger: “Mind The Gap.”

This warning draws the passenger’s attention to the gap between the train and the platform - lest you slip or trip unnecessarily.

In our last post we repeated the insight that we must understand God’s Word through the revelation of The Word - Jesus.

But when we read about Jesus in the Bible we need to Mind The Gap.

The world of Roman-occupied Palestine was a very different place to the world of America in 2022, or the London Underground in December 2021. There is a gap that will trip us up if we are careless in our reading.

Michael F. Bird’s book Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About The Bible has a chapter on this historical gap. He quotes scholar D.A. Carson giving historical background on Revelation 3:15-16, the letter from Jesus to the church in Laodicea. Carson describes the geography and history of the region: There are three cities in the Lycus valley. Colossae had cold springs of fresh water. Hierapolis had hot springs and became a place of renown for healing baths. Laodicea had neither, and was famous for nauseating, tepid water that was undrinkable,

This understanding enables us to Mind The Gap when we read that Jesus wishes we be “hot or cold” rather than lukewarm. Too many naive preachers and readers have stumbled over this understanding gap and drawn the conclusion that Jesus prefers spiritually “cold” unbelievers over “lukewarm” doubting believers. That is NOT what Jesus is teaching us here! Instead, historical context leads us to the correct conclusion that we are to be useful (whether cold fresh water or hot healing baths) rather than a nauseating mixture useless for anything.

This does not mean the Bible is irrelevant to us. But when we read about Jesus in the gospels, we must first understand the meaning in first century Roman culture, and then step over the historical gap to apply that meaning to our lives today. Thankfully there are many resources to help us. One I enjoy is The IVP Bible Background Commentary (New Testament) by Craig Keener. There is also an Old Testament volume that helps us with the bigger (and potentially more dangerous) gap to pre-Jesus Jewish scriptures.

Enjoy reading, and have a great day!

Mark.