Ellie shares her thought for the week; the bible isn’t a buffet.

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite meals is a buffet. You can have a Pizza Hut buffet, maybe a Cosmo Buffet, a Toby Carvery Buffet — and don’t get me started on how good a church lunch buffet is, especially at All Nations, because we know how to do that well here. One of the reasons why so many people love a buffet is because you can pick and choose what you’d like, and you can take as much or as little of each thing. If you love something, you can pile it up on your plate, and if there’s something you don’t fancy as much, you can just skip right past it.

I was reminded recently, when we were studying James 2 with some of our youth at a Bible study, that the Bible is not a buffet. Let me explain what I mean by that. James 2:10 says, 

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

James 2:10

In other words, we can’t approach God’s Word the way we approach a buffet table. We can’t pick and choose what we like and dislike in the Bible. We can’t walk along saying, “I’ll take that part — that part makes me feel good — but I’ll leave behind the parts that may challenge, convict, or call me to change.”

The Bible wasn’t given to us to pick and choose from. It was given to us complete, whole, and as truth. If we only take what we like, we will miss the fullness of what God is saying. To go back to the food analogy — if we return to that buffet table but only eat dessert, we may feel satisfied in the moment, but we’re not giving our body what it truly needs.

Every part of Scripture has a purpose. Now, if we’re honest, a lot of us want to know the words of God without really having to go through the hassle of reading — and I get it, I’m not a big reader either. But the Bible is not just another book. It’s not just words on paper; it is life-changing. Something interesting I came across is the fact that if you only read one Bible verse a day, it would take you 85 years, two months, and two weeks to read the whole thing. It would literally take a lifetime.

That really isn’t enough when you put it into perspective. If God has given us His Word to guide, encourage, and teach us, then surely it is worth more of our time than that. So let me encourage you, as we go into the rest of this week, to spend some time in God’s Word. Don’t treat it like a buffet — instead, start receiving it as the full meal that God intended it to be.

Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.