Avoid the Bible Buffet
A buffet is defined as “a meal consisting of several dishes from which guests can choose and serve themselves.” I think you either love them or you hate them. My sister-in-law won’t eat at a restaurant buffet because of others potentially touching, coughing on, or sneezing on the food she might choose. If you have a large appetite, a buffet might appeal to you because you get a lot of food for one price. I personally think the concept is great…whether you’re a picky eater, over eater or eat-like-a-bird eater, there’s sure to be something on a buffet to appeal to everyone.
Our youth pastor, Joseph, posted this on Facebook. “At some point in our spiritual growth, we have to stop treating God's word like a buffet...picking and choosing what we want to believe is right for us. Surrender to the full sovereignty of God.” I really liked that and asked his permission to use it here. His analogy was just so spot on when it comes to the way people “do church” today.
I’ve said for a long time that you can’t pick and choose which parts of the bible you believe…you either believe it or you don’t; you’re either all in or you’re all out. There are religions out there that teach us that we are in control and that we need to do what makes us feel good. Others give you a false sense of hope because they don’t preach the full gospel. This is why it’s so important to know God’s word, so you can discern truth, or falsehood, when you’re confronted.
Most buffets have healthy options, but they also have the favorites, which may taste really great but may not be so good for us. If I visualize a “spiritual” buffet, I see the “fruits” of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, along with some obeying, discipline and submission. It’s easy to take a big portion of love and joy, but we probably skip over the self-control and discipline. There will be plenty of things on the buffet that will tempt you; they’ll look delicious but if you’re smart, you’ll pass them up too.
When we treat God’s word like a buffet, and we get to a part that makes us uncomfortable, we just skip over it pretending it doesn’t apply to us. We cherry-pick what we want to believe, like the blessings and forgiveness of God, but then we justify our refusal to tithe saying that the giving of our time is sufficient. At some point in our relationship with Him, we must mature and recognize God’s sovereignty, as Joseph said; His supreme reign over us and how His ways are always better than anything we could pick and choose for ourselves.