But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33, ESV)
Chapter Eight - The Solution
The Bible is often viewed as being unknowable, or at minimum, confusing. This presupposition is due in part to having so many interpretations that people then ask themselves, who am I to think differently, or to discern the text properly? I have encountered people who will only read ‘religious’ or ‘theological’ books if they were written by someone officially endorsed by or affiliated with their own denomination.
As we already mentioned, Scripture does need to be interpreted correctly (as God intended) and so caution is required to not frivolously read the Bible. So, what is a person to do? If theologians can’t agree on how God intended Scripture to be interpreted, how can an average reader seek the truth? Just like any form of literature, if you don’t understand what you are reading, you essentially have two choices, one being just stop and proceed to look for a different book (for some that would mean a different version of the Bible), or diligently study and learn about the words, literary devices, and structure of the book so that a reasonable interpretation can be made. I know when I first read Shakespeare, I did a lot of ‘head shaking’ and wondered if I would ever make it to the end of the story, let alone understand what was going on! Once the lingo was mastered and the idioms understood, I began to enjoy Shakespeare.
But even with that you still run the risk of not finding out the true meaning of Scripture, so what is missing? One should not feel bad if they don’t fully understand God, as that endeavor would be impossible. But remember that God gave us His Word so that we can know about Him. And since He knew we could not know everything about Him, His Spirit is given and lives inside every believer. Jesus explained that this is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
The key to Biblical interpretation and the enemy of Biblical ignorance and everything else that follows ignorance, is to seek discernment from the Holy Spirit. A heart that is willing to accept God’s truth and potentially reject man’s less-than-truthful interpretation when exposed by the Holy Spirit as being wrong, is a heart that can serve God. It isn’t easy, as some traditions are very comfortable and to some degree, calming. But as Christians and disciples of Jesus, life on earth is about Him not us!
Earlier we briefly looked at the seven letters to the seven churches of Revelation. The first letter was sent to the church of Ephesus, which lost their first love, namely Jesus. His solution for that problem is still just as applicable today as it was then. “Remember how far you have fallen. Return to me and change the way you think and act, and do what you did at first.” (Revelation 2:5a, GW) If you want to live for God, we must begin by letting Him in and follow Him alone.
We see the first step as a believer is to know the Bible, the Word of God. As we grow closer to Him, we can see how God can use us and then we are not to sit down and just go to church, He has called us to Go! We are to live obedient to Him. While we as humans like to consider progressive steps in doing something will eventually get us to the end result, God’s approach of Know, Grow and Go can be done concurrently. Don’t be fooled by the devil and blindly follow the premise that God just wants your worship, Jesus desires you!