Every so often, the champions and foes of "Red Letter" Christianity break out their arguments, sharpen them up, and take to the internet. Champions say we've ignored the words of Jesus—highlighted in some modern Bibles with red lettering—for far too long. They want us to take up the radical call to discipleship Jesus issued in the Sermon on the Mount. The foes say that even printing these words in red creates a false, canon-within-a-canon that distorts the Scriptures.
Of course, there is a
good sense in which we ought to give heightened priority to the words and deeds of Jesus. Unfortunately,
some other self-described, "Red Letter" Christians do more than them priority. Instead, they contrast and even set in opposition the words of Jesus from the writings of Paul, or some other similarly ill-tempered and unprogressive disciple. While problematic, that approach is even less concerning than the tendency to pit Jesus against the
Bible he grew up with: the Old Testament. Jesus' words and character are contrasted with the Old Testament law, or the various commands of God scattered throughout the narrative sections of the Torah. So where Jesus and the Old Testament seem to conflict on violence, neighbor-love, sexuality, or some other hot topic, go with Jesus, they say. If you have to pick between red or black letters, go with red.
At the risk of kicking off another round of 'robust dialogue', here are three reasons why that approach doesn't really work.
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