Ultimate authority vs ultimate objective

No one can truly claim the Bible itself as their authority—only their understanding and interpretation of it. Every reading is filtered through language, culture, tradition, and bias. The irony is that those who shout “the Bible says” are really saying “my understanding / interpretation says.” And those who say, “this is the Word of God” are replacing a name reserved exclusively for Jesus with words written on paper*.

The real test of faith, then, is not pretending our reading and understanding are absolute, but holding these humbly—in dialogue with history, community, and the Spirit. This reality emphasizes Jesus’ declaration that love was the greatest pursuit: because love, unlike the pursuit of knowledge and accurate interpretation, transcends our filters and becomes the truest measure of faithfulness.

It is statistically impossible to possess the most-right doctrine. All anyone can do is adhere to their understanding and their faith as best they understand it. Some might argue that “this is what the church fathers believed” or “this is what our denomination believes” or “this is what [insert name] wrote” yet it is never so simple—anyone who has openly studied Christian history will acknowledge that disagreement and debate were present through every era.

The reality is simple: you’ve chosen that belief, that doctrine, that position based on the understanding and biases you possess, to the best of your ability. But you have also chosen or adopted it without exhausting all perspectives and cultural contexts relevant to it. You may have done some, but it is literally impossible to have exhausted them all for the purpose of certainty.

This is why I believe it is most beneficial to embrace open discussion and shared study rather than authoritarian positioning, demanding that others believe what you believe. As many in overseas church-planting movements ask, “Where is the greater risk of heresy: an individual processing Scripture in isolation? Or in a group processing Scripture together?”

The presence of mystery throughout Scripture and history has always been one of the primary points of faith. To say otherwise is either willful ignorance or willful arrogance.

I’ve spent decades—thousands and thousands of hours—studying the Bible, Christian history, historical-cultural contexts, and ecclesiology. None of that guarantees that I have the best understanding, doctrine or theology. No one can claim they possess such things.

I will continue to study and learn until I cross over. But more than that, I will focus the energy of my life on knowing and loving Jesus as I know and love all those he loves. The good news isn’t a transaction, a fight to the top, or a battle for knowledge; it’s a loving relationship. A relationship that transforms us in ways that knowledge is incapable of.

And that is why love wins. Love is the ultimate objective. In the end, Paul said Jesus would destroy dominion, authority and power (1 Corinthians 15:24), and that knowledge would pass away (1 Corinthians 13:8) but love would remain (1 Corinthians 13:13).

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_{*This exchange was introduced in the 5th century as a consolidation of authority that church leaders used to quell challenges to their leadership and edicts. This decision further catapulted Christianity into the oncoming dark ages. It was detrimentally emboldened again through the Sola Scripture movement of the Reformation (16th century) wherein historical hermeneutics for understanding and interpreting Scripture were entirely rejected in favor of an approach where the reader could ascertain all that was necessary to understand Scripture simply by reading it in isolation; an abuse that has led to widespread corruption in the modern charismatic church, as church leaders have deemed themselves to be ultimate authorities on the understanding of Scripture, losing millenia of helpful interpretive tradition and context.}