Scripture: 2
Timothy 3:10-17
You, however, know all
about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love,
endurance, persecutions, sufferings — what kinds of things happened to me in
Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued
me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have
learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you
learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are
able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped
for every good work.
George Muller writes; It
is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and
prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the
Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we
have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we
ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to
continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read
it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.
Reading the bible is often not enjoyable because we
“just don’t get it.” Genesis 19:8
“Look, I have two daughters, virgins both of them. Let
me bring them out to you and you could do what you like with them. But do
nothing to these men because they have come under the shelter of my roof.” Kings 2:23
Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was
going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to
him, “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you bald head!” So he turned around and looked
at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female
bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
Confused? No wonder. Scripture says we are "saved
by faith without works" and in another "faith without works is
dead." Another says to be saved
“repent and be baptized” and other places simply say “believe on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
How do we know what is right – or
what is even most likely? How do we get insight into difficult passages of
scripture? Or even simple ones? How does the bible become more
enjoyable? The answer, when we stop just
occasionally reading the bible and we begin to study it. Here are 7 key principles of hermeneutics
(how we study the bible) that can make anyone’s Bible reading and study more
fruitful and enjoyable – therefore more desirable.
1. Listen for the truth.
It used to be that the first thing
you’d want to know when it came to interpreting the Bible was context.
I’m going to put that second, because in our day, the first thing you have to
understand has to do with truth.
If we fall into one trap of
postmodern thinking, “truth” is no longer objective and, as a result, authors
are no longer to be taken at their word. Truth, in this sense, becomes whatever
we want to make it; in other words, relativism.
As far as the Bible is concerned,
truth is what corresponds to reality. Biblical authors, and the God who
inspired them, never intended for readers to twist the Scriptures into pretzels
that suited them. Instead, they had a very specific meaning they wanted us to
grasp.
This is crucial to recognize because
Scripture is God’s revelation of himself to us. Revelation is about getting to
know God, so it is essential that we understand the truth of what God is
revealing to us in order to know him truly.
John 8:32 (2 Tim 2:15-16 Do your best to present yourself to God as
one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly
handles the word of truth.)
2. Understand the context.
Context is a very important part of
interpretation.
First, there is the original context
and cultural setting of the Bible. It’s important to have some understanding of
this so we can grapple with passages and apply them meaningfully to our lives
today.
Second, there’s the immediate
context of a passage. Sometimes we read a single verse in isolation, forgetting
that it has an immediate context: It is part of a flow of ideas before and
after it.
Then, each word is part of a sentence,
which is part of a paragraph, which is part of a book or letter. Each book of
Scripture is also written within a specific genre, and exists within the larger
context of the Old Testament or New Testament, as well as within Scripture as a
whole.
This leads to the next principle.
3. Let Scripture interpret Scripture.
The Bible is a collection of divinely inspired
writings written by a number of authors, living in different geographical areas,
and written over a long span of history, yet it retains an amazing unity.
Because the many voices of Scripture make up God’s
unified revelation, we want to let Scripture interpret Scripture. This involves
examining what the Bible has to say on a topic as a whole rather than just picking stray
verses here and there and coming to a conclusion.
Scripture often interprets itself. For example in John 1:1, we
read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.” If we keep reading, the rest of the passage helps us interpret this verse
as we read, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us … ” (John 1:14),
showing us that the Word is Christ. Another
example is the parable of the sower in Luke 8. After Jesus shares
the parable, we read, “And when his disciples asked him what this parable
meant, he [Jesus] said … ” (Luke 8:9).
In the verses that follow (vv. 10-14),
Scripture interprets itself by telling us what Jesus meant.
4. Read from the text, not into it.
Too often, we come to the Bible with our own
preconceived ideas. If we do that, we’ll eventually fall into the trap of
trying to make the Scriptures say what we want them to say instead of drawing
out from them what the author—and God—intended.
The technical word for this error is eisegesis—reading into the
text. What we want to do is the opposite, called exegesis, which means
drawing out from the text what the author intended to communicate.
5. Trust the clarity of Scripture.
We can expect that Scripture will be clear. The Bible is clear when it comes to letting
us know about essential, important teachings. It doesn’t contain secret
messages that only the elite can understand’
It’s not that there aren’t parts of Scripture that are difficult to
understand, but on the whole, its key points are clearly presented and are
meant to be understood.
6. Recognize literal and figurative
language.
The Bible uses literal and figurative language. In his
book, Scripture
Twisting, James Sire observes
that we can fall into an error of interpretation by, “Either (1) mistaking
literal language for figurative language or (2) mistaking figurative language
for literal language.” Context helps us
determine whether what we are reading is intended literally or figuratively. Like when Jesus says if your
right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away –
literal or figurative?
7. Handle interpretation disagreements wisely.
While the principles outlined here are intended to
help better understand and interpret Scripture, in some cases we’re still left
with disagreements of interpretation. This
doesn’t mean that we all get to have our own personal interpretations and go
about our business ignoring other people’s interpretations. One way to handle
disagreements is first to determine if the area of disagreement involves a
primary (closed-handed) doctrine or a secondary (open-handed) one.
Primary doctrines include the essentials of the
Christian faith, such as the Trinity, Jesus as fully God and fully man, and
salvation by faith in Christ alone.
There are also secondary doctrines, such as worship
style, or mode of Communion, which permit a range of beliefs providing they
fall within the limits of biblical truth. If the interpretation difference is
over a secondary doctrine, there is often room for some disagreement. On the whole, Scripture’s key points are
clearly presented and are meant to be understood.
If it turns out we’re holding to a view that is not in
line with what the church as a whole has agreed on for some two thousand years,
that’s a good indication that our interpretation is probably off and that we need to
revisit it. Most important, ask the Holy
Spirit to guide and illuminate you as you sincerely seek to understand God’s
word.
Ben
Patterson in LeadershipJournal.net writes; Sometimes I think the church has
forgotten how to celebrate, How to party (how to enjoy the scriptures) Maybe it
is because we have forgotten what Jesus has done for us. Or maybe because the
stories the Bible have gotten old and we haven’t been around any new believers
to remind us of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. That reminds me of what
happened to a tribe in the jungles of East Asia, when missionaries showed them
the Jesus film. It was a big deal when I was in Seminary and one of my friends
was a missionary telling me about all that was going on with the Jesus Film.
The movie was being shown as an evangelistic tool to people all over—in the
desert, and in the jungles Not only had some of these people never heard of
Jesus, they had never seen a motion picture. And on that one unforgettable
evening, they saw it all—the gospel in their own language, visible and real.
Imagine again how it felt to see this good man Jesus, who healed the sick and
was adored by children, held without trial and beaten by jeering soldiers. As
these East Asians watched this, the people came unglued. They stood up and
began to shout at the cruel men on the screen, demanding that this outrage
stop. When nothing happened, they attacked the missionary running the
projector. Perhaps he was responsible for this injustice He was forced to stop
the film and explain that the story wasn’t over yet, that there was more. So
they settled back onto the ground, holding their emotions in tenuous check.
Then came the crucifixion. Again, the people could not hold back. They
began to weep and wail with such loud grief that once again the film had to be
stopped. The missionary again tried to calm them, explaining that the story
still wasn’t over, that there was more. So they composed themselves and sat down
to see what happened next. Then came the resurrection. Pandemonium broke out
this time, but for a different reason. The gathering had spontaneously erupted
into a party. The noise now was of jubilation, and it was deafening. The people
were dancing and slapping each other on the back. The Christ is risen, indeed
Again the missionary had to shut off the projector. But this time he didn’t
tell them to calm down and wait for what was next. All that was supposed to happen—in
the story and in their lives—was happening.
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