In John 5:39, the Lord makes a very interesting statement to some Bible believing Jews that had rejected him. Jesus says, “Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me.” In other words, they totally missed the point. How could people who studied the scriptures so much, miss out on the entire point of the scriptures? If they can miss the point, isn’t it possible for you and me to miss it as well?
One of the ways that people miss the truth comes from elevating one scripture to the point of neglecting what the Bible says elsewhere.
One common example can be found in a place where Jesus elevates two scriptures to the highest level. In Matthew 22:37-39, He teaches that the greatest command is to love God, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. What many people do with this is conclude that all of the other verses in the Bible are less important. Many individuals do not worry about what the Bible teaches about sin, salvation, the church, and worship. They have convinced themselves that all that matters is loving God. They have missed the point.
In 22:40, Jesus goes on to say, “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” In other words, the Law and Prophets contained the ways in which a Jew carried out the greatest commands. The Jews could not separate the ten commandments from the two greatest commandments. Unfortunately for many of the Jews at this time, they had.
We have the same problem today. People think they can love God without obeying. The greatest of the Christian principles is love (1 Cor 13:13). Love permeates the New Testament. But we must remember that all the words of the New Testament are built on loving God and our neighbor. Jesus said “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). We can not truly say we love God while disregarding what his word says.
There is not a magic verse in the Bible that serves as the only thing that we must know or do. As David said, “the sum of thy word is truth” (Psalm 119:160). We must be diligent students of all of the Bible to show ourselves approved unto God (2 Tim 2:15). We must be people who get the point.