Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)I was reading a book the other day in which one of the characters mentioned that Indians weren’t in the Bible. This was to justify his killing them. One of the other characters said that the English weren’t either.
A lot of things are not mentioned in the Bible. Church buildings, communion ware, song books, a lot of things we take for granted as Christians are not even mentioned.
So what is the point? The point is that the Bible was intended to be a general guideline and not an exhaustive list of everything a Christian can do or participate in.
Someone once wrote a list of all the things Jesus said. In his mind, it was an exhaustive list, because it listed all of the things that are recorded. Yet, John says that he said a lot of other stuff that isn’t mentioned.
It would be good to know a lot of the things Jesus said that are not recorded, if nothing else for reference. There is only one reference to something Jesus said that is not in the gospels. That is in Acts 20:35:
And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’Jesus went around all over Israel talking to people. In his three years of ministry he gave countless sermons and discussions. He talked in the temple countless times. He said a lot of stuff.
You go around behind someone for three years and record every word he says, you are going to have a lot of words written down.
The thing is the Bible was never meant as a complete record of everything Jesus said. It was just meant to be a representative record.
The things that are recorded are those things that God meant for us to have. They are all that are needed. We do not need to know any more.
That kills us sometimes. We want to know more.
But it is too bad. What is there is good enough for us.
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