Irrelevant?

I recall reading a story in Augustine’s Confessions that I wanted to use in a sermon. I decided to read the book from the beginning. Rehearsing the early years of his life, Augustine tells the reader of some of the challenges he faced in schooling.

I, poor wretch, could not see the use of the things I was sent to school to learn; but if I proved idle in learning, I was soundly beaten.

In spite of my terrors I still did wrong, by writing or reading or studying less than my set tasks. It was not, Lord, that I lacked mind or memory, for You had given me as much of these as my age required;

I disobeyed, not because I had chosen better, but through sheer love of play; I loved the vanity of victory, and I loved too to have my ears tickled with the fictions of the theatre which set them to itching ever more burningly; and in my eyes a similar curiosity burned increasingly for the games and shows of my elders.

I disliked learning and hated to be forced to it. But I was forced to it, so that good was done to me though it was not my doing. Short of being driven to it, I certainly would not have learned. But no one does well against his will, even if the thing he does is a good thing to do.

He learned the Latin language without trouble, but on learning the Greek language, he wrote,

For the drudgery of learning a foreign language sprinkled bitterness over all the sweetness of the Greek tales. I did not know a word of the language: and I was driven with threats and savage punishments to learn.

Augustine, as a young boy “had no will to learn.” All he wanted to do was play.

Let me ask you, does any of this sound familiar? It only describes most school boys. They hate school. No, they despise it. But like Augustine, they go to school—at least most of them do—and they learn, and they benefit from the experience.

Augustine was born over 1600 years ago, and yet, the description of his resistance to learning as a young boy is as fresh as if it had been written by any one today looking back at his days in school. Most boys prefer play to schooling.

The reason I bring this to your attention is that on occasion, people who are uninformed tend to judge the contents of the Bible as outdated; as no longer relevant. They subscribe to the motto: Old is mold. I think they are revealing more about themselves than the value of the Bible.

While it may be true that a lot of things have changed from the 1st Century to our own, one thing has not changed—human nature. I think Augustine’s Confessions prove the point. Simply because it is old it should not be reduced to mold. The same can be said of the Bible.

Human history records man’s obedience and disobedience to God. Paul argues that all have been disobedient; all have sinned (Rom. 3:23). The Story of the Bible is about how God arranged history to provide a remedy for the trouble we make for ourselves. The Bible does not need to be made relevant. It is relevant, and it is up to us to discover how.