"Let us who claim to take the Bible as our norm not oversimplify. Our search for truth has by no means ended--although our facile mouthing of formulas could turn away some who are earnestly seeking. We have much to seek and much to learn. We are meant to "hold firmly to the truth in love, and to grow up in every way into Christ" (Eph. 4:14, 15, Phillips, italics mine).
"God is absolute. His Word is authority. Still, it is at the same time anything but cut and dried.
"For the Love of God is broader,
Than the measure of man's mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make His love too narrow,
By false limits of our own
And we magnify its strictness,
With a zeal He will not own."
--Fredrick W. Faber
"As sons of God developing into maturity, we shall expect to be corrected in the process, and though this will be unpleasant, "when it is all over we can see that it has quietly produced the fruit of real goodness in the characters of those who have accepted it in the right spirit" (Heb. 12:11, Phillips). And will reference to the difficulties that are part of our daily education for maturity, Paul says, "Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us" (Rom. 5:5, Phillips). That marvelous hope--that we shall yet reach that ultimate end of all creation, fulfillment--maturity in Christ, for "everything that exists...shall find its perfection and fulfillment in him" (Eph. 1:10, Phillips). We shall reach "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13, KJV)."---Elisabeth Elliot, The Liberty of Obedience
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