How do you expect God to lead you through His Word as a Christian? I’m not talking about the still small voice, or the internal impressions that come by way for the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the lives of many believers. I’m asking just how it is you expect the Word of God to guide you when you have questions about the way forward in life. When I was a young Christian, I remember trying to find God’s guidance using Scripture. I’m not sure what I expected, but I had this decision to make about becoming a sales rep for a company selling a video curriculum on Genesis to local churches door to door. This was before social media, in fact, before the internet, and the curriculum was on film – with a projector – and a screen! That confirms that I am now ‘seasoned.’ But that’s not the point. The point is, I prayed, and I read Scripture trying to discern whether or not to accept the position. I agonized over that decisions for weeks even as I moved forward with a couple of appointments with church pastors and administrators to share some really good Bible teaching on film. Then I read 2 Corinthians 2:17, “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.” (2Co 2:17 NKJ)
I had my answer! I was not supposed to sell the Bible films to churches!
Well! Looking back, because we serve a Sovereign God who loves His children unconditionally, everything worked out as God moved me on to other things. But perhaps as you read this story you thought, ‘sounds right to me!’ But is it right to use the Word of God for guidance in this way? I think not, but let me explain.
YES – But in What Way?
First, please understand that the Bible is God’s inerrant and authoritative Word given to us to communicate His redemptive plan for fallen humanity. Each of the Bible’s sixty-six books add information and context to His work on our behalf through Jesus Christ His Son. What the Bible is not, and this may come as a shock to some, it is not a ‘guidebook’ or ‘handbook’ for daily living! You know, like those self-help books about different subjects that give you instructions about how to do something like, ‘The Camper’s Bible,’ or the ‘Contractor’s Bible?’
Reading, interpreting, and applying Scripture can be as simple as a soul feeding, quietly reflective reading of the text, or as maddeningly complicated as digging in using all the language tools we can find. One thing is sure in our modern, or should I say, post-modern world, there are those who believe that the only legitimate way to determine the meaning of anything is to use oneself as the referent. Say what? That’s a ‘highfalutin’ way of saying that each person determines the meaning of any communication he or she receives, whether spoken or written, based on their own experiences and learning. Said another way, words only have the meaning the reader pours into them and has little to do with what the author originally intended which intent is, in the opinion of some, unknowable. Such thinking impacts the ‘miscommunication’ taking place all around us because it considers everyone’s personal opinion about any given communication as legitimate as anyone else’s opinion. Truth then, even biblical ‘truth,’ is determined subjectively by the individual rather than objectively by understanding the author’s original intent.
Herme-What?
Early on in Bible College, I took a class called Hermeneutics. As a new Christian studying the Bible seriously for the first time, I was challenged and fascinated! Webster’s defines hermeneutics as, “The science of interpretation and explanation…especially, that branch of theology which defines the laws whereby the meaning of the Scriptures is to be ascertained.” (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary)
We don’t use the word hermeneutics publicly much in the church. Such fifty-cent words are for preachers and theologians, not lay-people in the pews. It’s all a preacher can do to get most of his folks to read a Bible at all, to say nothing of a detailed study leading to a greater understanding of God’s Word. I realize, of course, that those of you reading this far in this blog are the exception to that rather cynical ‘rule.’ I have come to that conclusion after more than forty years of explaining in Adult Sunday School classes, and Bible study groups, that “if you don’t have the time to do the homework in your study guide this week, please don’t let that keep you from attending. We will go over the answers together!” If I sound a bit frustrated, I am, especially as I see so many misuse the Bible. Once we discover God’s intended meaning of a particular passage we can apply the text to our lives. But there is another important connection we must make as we study.
Back in that hermeneutics class, our professor explained all the rules of interpretation, some of which I will note as we go along. But he taught us something profound as we put those rules in action. He prefaced each one of the rules for interpretation with the following sentence: “Prayerfully, in reliance upon the Holy Spirit, study the…” What followed ‘the’ were such principles as, ‘the historical background of the passage; the audience; the immediate context; the genre; and a number of other rules that apply to any passage of Scripture. An excellent hermeneutic, prayerfully applied in reliance on the Holy Spirit, is extremely important as we study any biblical book.
So, why is the above paragraph important to us when we study Scripture? One answer is reflected in the importance of original intent. What does the original author intend to communicate through his words? You might be tempted to ask, “who cares what the original writer intended? The important thing is what it means to me now in the present culture and environment.”
If we interpret Scripture in light of current American cultural values and ethics rather than God’s values reflected in His original intent, then the meaning of Scripture fades from an objectively knowable (and uniformly applicable) truth, to just another ‘what does it mean to me’ subjectivity.
Don’t get me wrong, I think many well meaning Christians who say, ‘what does it mean to me,’ are really saying, ‘how does this apply to me,’ which is better. But for too many, when original intent is lost in the fog of subjectivity, original meaning is also lost. When both meaning and the author’s original intent are lost, interpreting Scripture is built on the shifting sand of subjective whim. ‘I’ get to make the Word say whatever ‘I’ want it to say! To help guard against turning the Scripture reading into ‘a dialogue for the deaf’ where the Bible ‘speaks’ ONLY the way ‘I’ hear it speak, it is important to consider God’s intended meaning. To discover that meaning, we must consider the original recipients – to whom the book or letter in the Scriptures were first written. To try to apply the Word apart from its original intent is to miss the point God has for His church through EVERY generation! To seek personal guidance in the Word apart from the meaning of the text, and God’s original intent, is to consign the Greatest Story Ever Told to the likes of the magic eight-ball and the Ouija Board.