It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that one does put on his shoes after his socks. In like manner, one should put his socks on before his shoes.
After nearly 27 years, I can attest that this is the best method of Shoe-Put’r’on-ation. I’ve tried other ways that seemed like viable options but they always ended with tragic outcomes: stretched out (normally torn) socks and sore feet with blisters… Okay… maybe I’ve never done that with my socks and shoes , but who would? (Well… perhaps there was a time or two when I was a wee urchin child…)
It’s common sense, is it not, to put your socks on before your shoes for a comfortable and happy day. Nobody tries it the other way around because it doesn’t work. They (the socks and shoes) work as a team (a dynamic duo if you will) fighting to save you from achy feet and hurting soles… Good job S&S (that’s socks and shoes)! You’re our heroes!
*Ahem*… Sooooo…. what’s the point?
Ever heard someone say that they “get” the New Testament but not the Old (and therefore they just read the New)? Or maybe they admit that they've never read the Old Testament all the way through. Or perhaps it’s that they don’t think the Old Testament is relevant to them, their family, their church, their country, or even their faith as seen in the New Testament.
Dreadfully I’ve heard many a Christian state this phrase as a maxim or proverb: “We get our doctrine from the New Testament, not the Old.” Or “Don’t get your doctrine from the Old Testament. Get it from the New.”
While it is true that the ritual laws in the Mosaic Covenant (Old Covenant) are not binding on us as Christians, and while it is true that there are many events in the Old Testament (and doctrine never comes from events), and while it is true that the New Covenant is found in the New Testament (and that is the Covenant we are under as Christians)—it is also true that God’s character is revealed in the Old Testament, and it is also true that He gives the reason for the New Covenant in the Old, and it is also true that God expects us to understand what is in the Old before we go on to the New (and it is also true that this paragraph is one gigantic sentence which is about to end… now).
It’s just like a house. You don’t build a frame for the house, put it on the ground, and then try to pour a foundation under it. Nor do you put shingles on plywood, try to hold the plywood up in the air, and then try to build a house frame under that. Everything must be done in order. If you mix it up, you will have a mess (and the bank probably won’t be too happy with you over what you’ve done with their money).
If we can comprehend these basic elementary principles of life concerning the order of operations, why do we try to do it in reverse with God’s Word? We don’t do that with other books, so why do we with His?
The answer is simple… doing it the right way requires work and time… and we don’t want to give that.
It is sad that so many throw the Old Testament aside as being irrelevant or confusing. Jesus didn’t.
Jesus, after being raised, walked with two of His disciples who were prevented from recognizing Him. When they admitted to not believing that Jesus was the Christ (unawares, to Jesus, Himself), He responded this way:
And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Luke 24:25–27
Hmmm… Jesus seems to preach the Gospel from the Old Testament, doesn’t He. In fact, these disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was supposed to do as the Christ until Jesus told them from the Old Testament.
Jesus states it again to all His disciples some time later: Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44
If Jesus put such an emphasis on the Old Testament being preliminary to the New, why don’t we? If we are to believe the things written about Him in the Old Testament, but haven’t read it, how can we believe?
How can we have faith that He fulfills prophecies and promises when we don’t know what they are? How can we believe He is the Christ if we don’t know what the “Christ” is? How can we be cleansed from our sins if we don’t know what those sins are? How can we follow Him if we don’t know Who He is?
First the socks, then the shoes. It’s not rocket science folks… just obedience to our God.
Written by Caleb Jensen, Director of WORD Center Ministries
