Can we just be honest about it?  The Bible is not enough.

One of our resources for living the Christian life is experience.  Like all sources for our theology/our thinking about God, ourselves and the world, experience is problematic.  We don’t have certainty but we are required to make our best stab at life and experience should not be underestimated.

Both Plato and Aristotle repeatedly appeal to experience in their arguments.  Not exactly shabby  thinkers.

Experience also is valued in the Bible.  Much of Proverbs is based on experience.  Proverbs 17:1 states:  “Far better is a dry crust eaten in peace than a great feast in conflict.”  I’m betting somebody went to some feasts that turned out to be fiascoes.

The Book of Job is a devastating critique of traditional knowledge about God based on Job’s experience.  Ecclesiastes, why it’s chalked full of wisdom based on a long life of the ups and downs of human existence.  (Thomas L. Thompson, The Bible in History:  How Writers Create A Past, pp. 15-16)  In the book of Acts Peter has an experience which makes him believe some of the scripture of his day (purity considerations) is wrong.

What has your experience taught you about God, yourself, the world, and others?

Our experience is very valuable, especially when balanced and complemented by the experience of others, including the experience of those who penned the words of our  Bible.