All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.    2 Timothy 3:16 HCSB

Buffet style restaurants or restaurants that offer a menu as well as a buffet are popular because we love to pick and choose. You can choose all meats and no vegetables. You can eat only dessert or eat it first. And you can choose what you like and go back for seconds or even thirds. Most are all you can eat.

Sometimes we try to treat Scripture like a buffet. We like to choose to live by the Scripture passages we like and leave the others alone.

If we have been hurt by someone we consider them our enemy. This may cause us to not want to do as we are instructed in Matthew 5:43-44 which tells us to love our enemy, bless those who curse us, do good to those who persecute us and pray for those who spitefully use us.

Ladies we are told in 1 Timothy 2:9-13 to dress moderately, learn in silent submission or be quiet in church, women are not to teach or have authority over men. We struggle with this in our church today.

I will admit that I have struggled for years and at times I still struggle with Ephesians 5:22-24 which tells me to submit to my husband as I submit to the Lord. It tells me that just as the church is subject to the Lord, so I am to be subject to my husband in everything.

I am thankful that my husband is a loving man and a Christian, this makes it much easier. He is instructed to love me as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. I think he does well with this, but I may need to step up my game a bit.

Romans 12:9-21 teaches us how to behave like a Christian. It tells us to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Hopefully, this is easy to do. But then in verse 14 we are called to do something difficult again when it says, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.”

We are told to associate with the humble in verse 16 and not to be wise in our own opinion in verse 17. Verses 18-19 talk about revenge. We are not to repay evil for evil. We are not to seek vengeance, but leave vengeance to the Lord. We are told not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good in verse 21.

It’s our job to live as Christ taught us to live. This is how we establish ourselves as followers of Christ. It’s God’s job to handle those who come against His followers or His children.

God doesn’t call us to obey some of the Scriptures, He calls us to obey all of them. How are you doing with that? Are you picking and choosing which you obey?

In this woke society with people getting offended over everything, as Christians we should be offended by people not willing to live according to the Scriptures. We should be offended by people who love their own choices in life more than they love the Lord. According to this Scriptures, this offense we have should cause us to love them and pray for them.

We should never pick and choose the Scriptures. We should never twist the Scriptures to suit our own selfish desires. We should not settle for pastors who do this or who add to or delete anything from Scripture. We are warned in Revelation 22:18-19 there will be dire eternal consequences for those who add to or delete anything from God’s holy word.

I encourage you to understand Scripture is not a buffet. We can’t pick and choose. We must ingest it all and obey it all. We must be diligent in Bible study. This is the only way we will know how we are to live. This combined with prayer is what builds that close relationship with Jesus Christ and that’s what it’s all about.

Have a great day!