This is really a great word on shaking off the do’s and don’t’s of religion in search of the more abundant life of simply following Jesus! I have to say though, there is a bit about your simplification of stepping beyond Scripture that is bothersome to me - maybe you can shed some light on it if I’m reading it wrong. You say you trust your moral inclinations more than you trust Scripture, or that a believer doesn’t need to follow Scripture if it disagrees with your moral compass, and I think that’s a really faulty belief. Mostly, most people’s moral inclinations if they believe in the God of the Bible is FROM the Bible. It’s based on the knowledge of who God is (which we learn from reading Scripture) and it’s flourished by the way God acts (which we know from Scripture). It’s also innate in us as humans because of how we were created, in the image of God (found in Scripture).
Sure, there are some confusing moral implications throughout Scripture, but that’s where valuable study and meditation are important to get to the right interpretation. It’s not Scripture you’re really mistrusting, it’s the interpretations of Scripture. And sure, it would have been nice if God was SUPER clear what He meant for us to do about misogyny, slavery, women’s and gay people’s treatment, but then we wouldn’t need a God.
If you truly believe in the same God of the Bible, then the Bible has to be a sort of authority (the ultimate authority if you ask me) in your life - because otherwise you have no reason to ACTUALLY believe in God. The Bible is the words of God that He used to reveal Himself to this world - creation also reveals His nature and greatness but without His Word, we’d have no understanding of who He is and how to be in relationship with Him.
I believe Scripture is clear on specific moral implications that we’re all trying to navigate - will my interpretation disagree with someone else’s? Surely, but that’s not at the fault of Scripture - that’s at the fault of our human nature. And maybe morality isn’t the whole point. Maybe there is something deeper, like trusting God to fill in the gaps of our misunderstanding, trusting His ultimate authority and knowing we will never fully know on this side of Heaven, but doing our due diligence to follow the moral path we understand by His Word to the best of our ability - which to your point that I agree with, means loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is THE GREATEST commandments. If that’s authoritative in your life, as it should be, then why cut the rest of Scripture out?
