Only love is biblical

      If you’re not more loving after reading the Bible, you’re reading it wrong. – St. Augustine, about 400 CE, or some 370 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus

      In my new book, Day by Day, I call that quote from Augustine central to reading the Bible.

      If you’re not more loving after reading scripture, you have totally misread and misunderstood it.

      I find an interesting variation on that theme in last week’s 5th installment of the new TV series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.”

      The episode involves a search for the truth about what happened to Benjamin Sisko, the legendary commander of Deep Space Nine in the series of that name.

      The show was meant as a tribute to Avery Brooks, the now retired actor who played Sisko in the original series. The show closes with a voiceover by Brooks, who reads from a tribute he did to his father in 2007. The quote is especially fitting because it closes an episode that focuses on Sisko and the meaning of fatherhood.

      Here’s the quote:

      “Divine laws are simpler than human ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words as they were meant to be interpreted.”

      That’s the way it works with the Bible. Only love can interpret the words of scripture as they were meant to be interpreted. Any other reading will distort the message. Any other reading will result in a demonic message, not a message from God.

      That is especially true in this day when white nationalists who call themselves Christian and many other fakers try to read their own hate into the Bible.

      If it ain’t love, it ain’t biblical. It’s that simple. And that hard.