If you are able to freely have and read the Bible, you are truly blessed. There are people living in this world who hold on very tightly and thankfully to only small parts of the Word of God. We all should feel this passionate and dedicated, knowing how important every word in the Bible is. Remember this is not another book, this is God’s Word. As it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 1:1-2 and other places in the Bible that God does not speak to us like he did to the Old Testament prophets, he speaks to us through the words of the Bible. These words are perfect and sufficient. They need nothing added or taken away from them.
I really like what Justin Peters says about this, “If you want God to speak to you, read the Bible. If you want God to speak to you audibly, read it out loud”.
Having the ability and freedom to read the Bible is one thing, but understanding what it means is entirely another. There is a right way and there are wrong ways to interpret scripture. Growing up, I was taught that a passage from the Bible could mean one thing to me at a certain point in my life, depending on what I was going through, and have it mean something else to me at another point in my life. This kind of thinking would mean that a passage would have several meanings to each person in this world depending on their situation. Can you see how crazy that is? The Bible’s Words would be so diluted with our interpretations that each passage could mean anything and nothing. This is definitely a wrong way to interpret scripture.
Another wrong way is to read and interpret the scriptures through the lens of tradition. Tradition is the most common way we take meaning from the Word of God. When you have these traditional beliefs it can be very difficult for the truth in scripture to penetrate through. I was taught certain Christian beliefs that one should live by and I spent many years gaining meaning from the Bible through those traditions I was taught. When you read the Bible you are always trying to make the Scriptures fit to those traditional beliefs, even if you don’t realize it. These beliefs don’t necessarily have to be religious ones; they could be based on science or history. The Bible is always in the shadow of these beliefs instead of letting the Bible lead the way. Everything else is secondary to the Bible and subject to being wrong, whether it’s science, history or a warped sense of the Bible.
Here are two examples of traditional beliefs. The first is being taught that the sinner’s prayer can save you. It’s not taught anywhere in the Bible; it is completely unbiblical. The initial form of this preaching started in the mid-eighteenth century with Eleazar Wheelock. It morphed through the years as different preachers such as Charles Finney and Billy Sunday picked up this teaching. It really evolved into what we know as the sinner’s prayer from the preaching of Billy Graham. (I will do a complete article on the sinner’s prayer in the future).
The second example is believing in the Biblical account of creation but that science best describes how it happened. There are many people who believe in evolution and have tried their best to blend together this belief and the Genesis account. They warp and twist the words of Genesis to make evolution sound like more of a complete account of creation. More and more church goers are accepting this. Please read the Genesis account of creation and then read what science has to offer about creation. Forget all the writing from people who have tried to blend them together. You will see, very easily, they are completely contradictory.
To interpret scripture we must use the only completely true and without error item we have, and that is scripture itself. I have always heard to read the passages before and after the verse so you don’t take the verse out of context. I used to say this and I still do, but sometimes you must go farther and deeper into the whole scripture. There have been many times when I believed a passage to mean one thing, and then run into other scriptures that contradict that meaning. Since the Bible can’t contradict itself I must be wrong with my interpretation. This is where you really dig into the Bible, the whole Bible and pray for understanding so you can know the truth.
Another wrong way of interpreting scripture is to not pray for understanding. Scripture is completely opposite from us. Scripture is pure and without fault while we are fallen creatures with a sinful natural core. Our situation influences our thinking and limits us from the knowledge of scripture. If we rely solely on our own capacity to learn God’s Word we will always come up short of the truth.
Our eyes must be opened and our minds taught by the Holy Spirit these things written in the Bible. The Word of God is alien to us until we are saved by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ through the grace of God. It is always the Holy Spirit that reveals the truth of God’s Word. As Christians we become aliens or pilgrims in this world, clinging onto scripture and fighting our sinful nature every day, 1 Peter 2:11.
God’s Word will be the only thing that will matter one day. All of our knowledge of science, of this world and space will be useless. God created the world to work the way it does and He is actively in control of the smallest piece, at all times. One day this world and all of its governing knowledge will be no more and only the Word of God will stand as reality, Matthew 24:35.
Search the words of the Bible, to what the Father inspired to be written and be glad in the truth. There is a name people used to call J C Ryle because of his loyalty to the Word of God and that is Bible bleeder. We all should strive to be labeled as this and known for it.
Our interpretation of the Bible, the only standing reality, should be treated as the precious gift that it is. Pray for this understanding, diligently add to it and share it.