Prophylactic Scripture....

    The Bible is not a prophylactic. The Bible is not a talisman. The Bible is not a lucky charm. The Bible is a word spoken from God. It requires attention. It requires an investment of mental capital and a commitment to both understand and apply it. 

It is through such diligence that those who are in rebellion against God can come to understand their sin and yield their will to the Father’s saving purpose in Jesus. This is the kind of commitment which allows disciples to grow and mature into the image of the Word who became incarnate so that He might save and sanctify us by His blood and by his word. 

The Bible is the word of God and it contains many words from God. A lot of those words are unfamiliar in our fallen, secular culture. That’s actually ok. It is when the Word of God seems familiar, flattering, and fuzzy to the fallen that we must question the fidelity of those of us who proclaim that world to that culture. To those who are perishing the Scripture should explode the pretense of invulnerability. To those who are marginalized by our culture the Bible should communicate hope. To those who are hurting there “is a balm in Gilead.” For those who are lost the Bible describes the way to follow Him who is the Way. So we need to understand that the Bible is not just for protecting us from things. God’s Word unleashes His power in the world. God’s word projects His authoritative will in His church and through the Church to a culture which is drying up and dieing. The Bible promotes righteousness. The Bible proscribes the fate of the fallen.

It's not an inoculation. It's not just about "protection" Scripture forms our mind, focuses our character, fixes our mission.