'How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible
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Every Christian leader worth his salt – or to put it even better, everyone who is salt – stresses the vital role of the Bible in divine guidance. The necessity of verifying that any supposed word from God is thoroughly consistent with the written Word of God is so obvious that telling that to most of us is as superfluous as telling us to breathe. You’ll find this webpage crammed with Scriptures. What is seldom explained, however, is that unless our heart is right, a thorough Bible knowledge and deep reverence for the Bible will let us down – badly.
The devil used the holy Word of God to tempt Jesus. It was central to his plot to lure the Son of God from his divine mission. Scripture convinced devout Bible scholars that Jesus was a demon-possessed madman they should kill for the good of the nation. No doubt, it was also his knowledge of Scripture that played a role in firing up Saul to eradicate every trace of Christianity from the planet.
Bible knowledge is spiritual wealth. Give someone a million dollars and the vast possibilities range from using it to achieve enormous good, right through to destroying himself with it. Wealth – be it spiritual or material – tests a person’s character.
In a webpage for Christians agonizing over the morality of divorce, I briefly mentioned various Scriptural interpretations on the subject by sincere scholars. Rather than being enlightening, it was frustratingly confusing. Amazingly, however, it turns out that feeling confused and incapable of correctly interpreting God’s Word is a vital leg of one’s journey to hearing from God.
Those who suppose they have all the answers are the ones least likely to hear from God. Ponder the implication of Jesus’ prayer:
Matthew 11:25 “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. . . .”
Those who are wise in their own eyes are in grave danger of spiritual blindness and deception.
1 Corinthians 3:18-20 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
On the other hand, wondrous possibilities emerge for those with the humility to realize their “foolishness” – the natural human blindness to spiritual things – and their need of divine help in understanding biblical truth: Psalm 25:9 He guides the humble . . . and teaches them his way.
Even someone so spiritual and knowledgeable that he actually wrote part of the Bible, recognized his own need to pray for understanding of God’s Word:
Psalms 119:18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
The Lord intentionally makes his Word difficult to understand to shake us out of complacency and inspire us to passionately seek his understanding of his Word, like Jesus’ disciples who couldn’t understand his parables and so came to him for understanding.
An intellectual approach to the Bible, no matter how studious and informed, is never enough.
1 Corinthians 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Discerning biblical truth either takes us to the height of spiritual intimacy or we will drift into delusion, no matter how much, like the devout scholars in Jesus’ day, we think ourselves the epitome of orthodoxy.
Paul commented on how Jews could study the Old Testament with great thoroughness and still never realize that Jesus is the Messiah it prophesies. He put it this way:
2 Corinthians 3:15-16 Even to this day when [the books of] Moses [the first five books of the Bible] is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (Emphasis and explanatory text, mine.)
To know the will of God, it is not enough merely to know the words of Scripture, you must know the Author, being on the most intimate terms with him. To do the will of God, it is not enough merely to know the answer, you must be in spiritual union with the Answer.
Countless thousands of sincere, Bible-loving Jews longing for their Messiah rejected Jesus as their Savior because he did not match their Bible-based – yes, Bible-based – preconceptions. Much of their misunderstanding was due to confusing the Messiah’s second coming with his first coming, and much of that was probably because their longing to be delivered from hardship was greater than their longing to be delivered from their sin.
God made it so difficult to recognize Jesus’ true identity that when Peter made this discovery, Jesus exclaimed, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. . . .” (Matthew 16:17).
Here’s my poem. I hope it’s not too long for you:
Spiritual concerns are spiritually discerned.
(Well, it almost rhymes.)
For proof of this great truth, we need go no further than this: evil spirits were far better at knowing who Jesus was, than were all the priests, spiritual leaders and Bible scholars combined. Demons knew in an instant what the best theological minds could not figure out about Jesus.
So a critical step towards finding the mind of God on any issue is to recognize that insights into spiritual matters will not be attained merely by the intellectual process of studying the relevant Scriptures and reaching one’s own conclusion as to what they mean. There must be a humble recognition of one’s dependence upon divine illumination of God’s Word. This naturally leads to fervent, faith-filled prayer for divine revelation but, as we will discover, there are additional heart attitudes to be mastered.