Biblical Trump Verses

:):):) I'm sure some of you know where I am going with this, before I even start, just from reading the title. :):):)

I get very tired of Biblical discussions where verses are thrown around almost like, "This is the GREATEST COMMANDMENT..."
A lot of you probably read Amy's Humble Musings and there was a quiverfull debate recently over there in which Amy so eloquently pointed out-

“Be fruitful” isn’t the trump verse of the Bible. If we were looking for the trump verse, it would have to be Jesus’ words to love God and love our neighbor. He already told us the main thing. (Question to myself: How well am I doing that?) How can we avoid one verse becoming the measuring stick of the condition of our hearts and the vehicle in which churches and groups are built upon?"


I agree that the trump verse of the Bible is this:

Matthew 22:36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."


I love to debate as much as the next person. I like to rip ideas/traditions apart to see if they stand on Biblical truth or man's variation of it.
What I don't like are debates where people get self-righteous and form "camps" which destroy unity.

Tonya (Kissack) put it best over at Tia's blog during a wonderful semi-heated discussion on gender roles in the family and church:
"I think if we drop the labels (complimentarian and egalitarian for those of you not reading the awesome study) and just go for understanding the Bible in humility, we'll all be in unity. Maybe not in every little detail, but at least we won't be in different camps lobbing "OH YEAH! Well get a load o' THIS!" at each other."

I think that labels are fine sometimes to aid in understanding but when we are debating brothers and sisters in Christ we can easily forget that we are ALL on Jesus' side and just have different views about some things.
The other danger to labels in debates is that we get all caught up and forget that we might actually learn something from someone who doesn't agree with us.

For example, I joined a message board that has mostly conservative believers on it. Most of these people are parents. The discussion actually came up, "Would you (as a homeschool parent) attend a church where the pastor sent his kids to public school?"
I thought that was a pretty over the edge question..until I started reading the responses and it seemed like the MAJORITY of the parents said, "No." There were a variety of reasons for the no answer but I was still SHOCKED! I have never in my life picked a church to attend based on anything like that. I think you SHOULD look at the character of the leaders in a local body and be sure they are teaching SOUND Biblical teaching but their lives may not look just like mine. That doesn't mean I cannot learn from them. That doesn't mean they are not Godly. To say that they are not as spiritual or are worldly because they use the PS system and to go on to say that they wouldn't feel comfortable under their leadership FLOORED me. It sounded like pride to me. Now, if the pastor was allowing (key word is ALLOWING) his kids to experiment with drugs, sex, etc. then no, I would not feel comfortable under his authority.

My point is this: Just because everyone doesn't believe the same way does not mean we cannot learn from each other and dwell in unity. We can discuss, debate, and disagree in a loving way (I do it all the time.) but at the end of the day we need to remember that we are ON THE SAME TEAM!

"And these three remain; faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love."