Romans 13:13-14 // Bright Walking

Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. (Romans 13:13-14)

Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days. There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel - that will stand. (Proverbs 19:20-21)

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. (Acts 16:1-2)

There are so many things that can unsettle our faith. I type these texts out myself, and in the third text I mixed up "a certain disciple" with "a certain Jewish woman" garbling the sentence. Because I am typing on a computer I could easily rectify it, not so a handwritten manuscript. For this reason there are places where some manuscripts of the Bible are different from the majority. I believe the main tradition of manuscripts from the Byzantines (Textus Receptus) should be assumed correct unless a compelling case can be made from a majority of manuscripts (Majority Text) and the "oldest" two manuscripts should be regarded with caution (Nestle-Uland) unless you want to undermine divine preservation of Scripture. I mean, if those two manuscripts are the only correct ones, God did a very bad job of revealing them in a timely way, since one of the was discovered in the Vatican in modern times.

I don't think we should dismiss marginal readings offhand, but we should only consider them in light of God's ability to preserve the meaning of Scripture across the ages from a conspiracy-theory level "copying error".

But that's for an academic context. If we want to be transformed into God's image through our reading of Scripture, we must read without such considerations blocking the Word from our hearts. We must read prayerfully with open hearts and minds. There is a context where critical thinking is useful and appropriate, friendship is not one of them. Those who have difficulty trusting, have difficulty forming relationships. Therefore those who approach Scripture, prayer and personal discipline from a reductive, cynical, skeptical direction will have trouble forming a vital connection to God.

Rather let us embrace Scripture, godly impulses and yes, even tradition, choosing not to partake of alcohol without worrying about trace quantities in something or other, choosing not to partake of things forbidden by Scripture or our church communities without being finicky about it. Let's live more and doubt less. Caution has its place, I must be careful where I step. But I cannot live ghost walking. I cannot take half a minute to clear away the leaves and twigs every time I walk. Save the ghost walking for special operations, walk boldly and confidently in the light of manifest goodness and truth.