In the New Testament Everyday Bible Study Series, widely respected Bible scholar Scot McKnight combines interpretive insights with pastoral wisdom for all the books of the New Testament. Each volume provides brief, precise expositions of the text and offers a clear focus for the central message of each passage. McKnight supplies historical context, biblical connections, and questions for reflection and application perfect for group use or personal study.
In this Q&A, Scot McKnight (@scotmcknight) talks about his new Bible study series, The New Testament Everyday and the first book in the series, James and Galatians (HarperChristian Resources, 2022).
Why did you pair the letters of James and Galatians together? Is there a common theme between them?
Scot McKnight Combining James and Galatians together is not as radical as it might sound. Yes, justification by faith and works pits the two against one another and that makes for a fun title—like some score will be settled. The simpler truth of the matter is length of the books. Each volume is about 40,000 words without the Bible’s texts and this made for a comfortable size for each letter. The study guides to each are separate books.
In what ways are these books relevant for today?
Scot McKnight Let me count the ways! Wisdom, liberation/freedom, to begin with. Use of the tongue and speech—think of social media and our lack of political civility. The Holy Spirit. Grace. On and on it goes. There’s so much in each book that touches on so much of our daily lives. It was more than enjoyable to reflect on how such themes are relevant.
What is the benefit of reading the Bible, and the New Testament in particular, everyday?
Scot McKnight The Bible, if I take just one of the eight words for the God’s communication with us from Psalm 119, is God’s (spoke/written) word to us. We learn to indwell the kingdom of God and the world of Jesus and the apostles by soaking ourselves in Scripture, in the Bible’s story, and in the Bible’s narrative arc from creation to kingdom, from the city of Babel to the New Jerusalem, and with God in the center of it all. Perhaps we need that message more today than ever.
How should we approach the letter of James?
Scot McKnight Let James be James. Read it on its own terms and let it be what it is. So often we want to bend James, shape James and to mold James to our world when James, on his own, is a radical prophet who speaks the words of Jesus in a new way for a new day. No one sounds like Jesus more than James—and yet James doesn’t quote Jesus but once. That’s one of the most helpful perspectives for me in reading James.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Hum of Angels: An Interview with Scot McKnight]
You say, “The blessing of eternal life has waned among the current generation.” What do you mean by that and how can we rectify that?
Scot McKnight Many today have lost that sense of an eternity after we die. In fact, I’ve watched eyes roll in saying that or mentioning Heaven. When many today are thinking Hell can be now and Heaven can be now, and in so saying they’re diminishing the hope of the church, we’ve lost something. I’m of the age where I think more about death and Heaven than I did when I was young, but “eternity” is not some fairy tale to the Bible. It’s the place where God metes out justice and puts the world in the right condition as it was designed. Without a hope that God will at least in the end create justice we’re doomed to think injustice has the last word too often.
Why is loving your neighbor as yourself so foundational to the Christian faith?
Scot McKnight Because Jesus said so. It’s the core ethical vision of Jesus: when asked what was the greatest of all the commandments, which was a concern for many Jewish teachers at the time of Jesus, Jesus replied that there were actually two: loving God and loving others. They were, for him, interdependent ethical visions. To love God is to love others and to love others reaches for loving God. John’s first letter is loaded with this vision and the apostle Paul touches the very heart of this in Galatians when he says loving others fulfills the law. James says the same. Love God, love others was the heartbeat of Jesus and his earliest followers. We need it more today than we did a generation ago.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Discernment: Rethink How You Read the Bible]
Explain what you mean by a “lived theology of the gospel.”
Scot McKnight Charles Marsh, a professor at the University of Virginia, put me on to this idea. Lived theology is that life as people live it is a theology in and of itself. Not a display of theology but theology itself. How we live is a gospel message, a reconciliation message, a prophetic message, and justice message. What people see when they watch us live reveals a theology. It’s a dynamic idea about which I’m learning more and more. The reason there’s so much ethical vision in Jesus and why the apostles press for deeper Christian living is because lived theology was the aim of conversion and discipleship.
What is the one takeaway you want readers to grasp after completing this Bible study?
Scot McKnight I don’t think there would be one. If I reduced it to one I’d say it’s that God still speaks through these beautiful little books, James and Galatians, and through that speaking God can transform us.
What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?
Scot McKnight I write “Mark 12:29-31” in every book I autograph. I call it the Jesus Creed. It’s my motto and one that I try to live each day, and one that I fail at many days! But I keep coming back to it and reciting it in my mind throughout each day.
BIO: Scot McKnight is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lisle, Illinois. He is the author of more than 80 books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed, as well as The King Jesus Gospel, Following King Jesus, A Fellowship of Differents, One.Life, The Blue Parakeet, and Kingdom Conspiracy. He maintains an active blog at www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight. He and his wife, Kristen, live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where they enjoy long walks, gardening, and cooking.
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The post James and Galatians: An Interview with Scot McKnight appeared first on Bible Gateway Blog.