Session Six
Scripture: Selected
Date: October 11, 2008
Speaker: Sean Higgins
I understand that there is no possible way that I’ve answered all your questions about hermeneutics and observation and interpretation. I did not expect to. I wanted to give those of you who only read or who are regularly frustrated some simple tools to approach any passage of Scripture. For those of you who wanted to go deeper for your private study or as you study to teach others, I hope you got some new ideas and at least got a glimpse of going deeper and were challenged to get as much as you can from one passage yourself before cross-referencing and commentary-ing (first).
But as I said at the beginning this morning, studying the Bible is a spiritual work, and it is to have spiritual consequences/results.
We have spent most of our time talking about observation, that’s because the best interpretation comes from the passage itself. You may need other help (we’ll get to that), but the better you see the better you will understand. And then, once you’ve figured out the point of the passage from the original writer to the original readers, you’re in a position to consider how that impacts you.
You’ve got to do your homework on the passage before figuring out what work you need to do at home. But then you do have work to do. Howard Hendricks said,
Observation and interpretation without application equals abortion. In other words, every time you observe and interpret but fail to apply, you perform and abortion on the Scriptures in terms of their purpose.
Strong words. As a baby is meant to come to full term, to be born, to have life, and to grow, so Scripture is meant to come to full term and be applied.
Here are three reasons application is important .
Just think through a couple well known passages with me. 2 Timothy 3:10-17
10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Teaching concentrates on theological thinking, but reproof —when you’re out of bounds, correction —how to make it right, and training in righteousness are entirely about conduct. God’s inspired word makes a man competent, equipped for every good work . For life and ministry in troubled times, the people and their pastors need application of God’s Word.
To not do god works is to be prepared for nothing. It makes the profitableness of Scripture no profit.
Look again at 1 Peter 2:1-3
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
What is the purpose of longing for the milk? That by it you may grow up into salvation .
One more, consider Joshua 1:7-8.
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Written to Joshua as he’s being set up to lead the nation, note the repetition being careful to do according to all that is written in the Law of Moses. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. It isn’t meditation for the sake of happy thoughts, positive thoughts, it is for the sake of obedience.
The ultimate goal of Bible study is not for you to do something to the Bible, beating it with observation sticks, but to allow the Bible to do something to you; correct, clean, strengthen, change. That’s why Paul was concerned about the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness (Titus 1:1). The Bible informs and transforms. This is why it’s good to acknowledge God’s authority beforehand.
Hypocrites damage the church’s witness to the world. Especially arrogant Christians who know their Bible’s so well they forgot to apply humility. Or those who are so concerned for the doctrine of justification by faith that they forgot to grow in sanctification. Titus 2:9-10
9 Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
In Titus 2:9-10 Paul is talking specifically to slaves, but it has application for us as well. He uses the word adorn , to decorate or dress up. Paul’s point is that Christian slaves honor the teaching of good doctrine (2:1) about God the Savior through their obedience. The teaching of Scripture is seen with greater luster because behavior gives tribute to truth. Those who apply God’s Word demonstrate the attractiveness of the gospel.
Of course, for teachers, nothing will undermine your message more than living in what you preach against.
James 1:19-25
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
This is a well known passage. Of course, it is a clear command to be doers and not listeners only, apply-ers and not only observers and interpreters/exegetes only.
But pay attention to the danger in verse 22. If we hear/observe and don’t do, we are deceiving ourselves, deluding, defrauding ourselves. And what are we deceived about? They think they’re okay when they’re not. Perhaps it goes as far as thinking they are saved and they’re not, based on the issue of a saved soul in verse 21.
Verses 22-24 are a would-be-funny-if-not-true illustration of a deceived person. This isn’t an ignorant person walking around, it’s a person who is continually ignorant. Looking in the mirror, seeing things that need to be fixed (uncombed hair, dirty face, unbrushed teeth), walk away, is the worst kind, a dangerous kind of deceived.
On the other hand, lookers and doers/changers are blessed (verse 25).
See some principles for what applies today and what doesn’t. From Roy Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation, pp. 92-94:
Also, see some application questions for each passage. Hall suggests answering the following five application questions which form the acronym “SPECS”: Does the passage speak of any Sin to be forsaken, Promise to be claimed, Example to be followed, Command to be obeyed, or Stumbling block to be avoided? (Zuck, p. 290)
Today we haven’t even talked about figurative language, about types and antitypes, symbols, or spent too much time on parables and prophecy (as concerns millennialism), or talked too much about the New Testament’s use of the Old. Those are important parts too. But if you’ve been around me for much time, you’ve probably heard me mention, our biggest problem is not that we don’t know enough, our biggest problem is that we don’t do what we already know.
Righty applying is just as important as rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word. As Johann Bengel wrote in 1742,
Apply yourself wholly to the text and apply the text wholly to yourself (quoted in Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation, p. 292)
We really have only scratched the surface of Bible study today. It may have felt like drinking from a fire hose, but the water tower hasn’t been emptied. So what can you do next?
Before I mention these steps, the same Luther who reminded us that “the Scriptures alone are our vineyard in which we ought all to work and toil,” also confronts us with:
It is a sin and shame not to know our own book or to understand the speech and words of our God; it is a still greater sin and loss that we do not study languages, especially in these days when God is offering and giving us men and books and every facility and inducement to this study, and desires His book to be an open book. (The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, pp.99-100.)
Living by the Book is THE best book I know of on how to study the Bible in English. It will give you all kinds of practical, imaginative suggestions. Thankfully, now you have your own copy.
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, though I don’t love everything about it, will help you think through the different genres and give you many more principles for approach specific genres than I did today.
I’m hoping that they will be available online in the next couple weeks. You’ll receive and email letting you know when everything is ready, as well as a password for each page (as part of your registration cost). Not everyone will have access, so please don’t pass that around.
Greek (and Hebrew) is NOT the answer, context is always king, but being able to look at the original grammatical context is better. There are things that you will not be able to get without it.
That is easier said than done. If you ask some of those who have taken Greek from me, they will tell you it is a lot of work. I hope they would say it’s worth it.
Obviously, this isn’t for everyone, but it may be helpful.
I’m regularly asked how long it takes me to prepare a message. That is hard to say, and not just because I’m a pastor. How do you account for four and a half years of Bible college, four years of seminary, teaching how to study the Bible for five years, and actually studying and teaching the Bible for fifteen or so years?
I will include this list of recommended resources online, so don’t feel like you need to write everything down.
Also, our task is to get to God’s Word. His Word alone is the ultimate authority, so sola Scriptura. However, we would be arrogant not to learn from others who have gone to God’s Word. Just be on guard against those teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
Studying the Bible is a lifelong process, so you’ll be okay if you add resources slowly, and then actually use them.
Remember, no matter what resources you have, prayer and context come first.
“It is not a question of time but of values” (Piper, Brothers, p. 87, in reference to learning Greek). You always do what you most want to do, and if it is important to you, you will study.
Learn Greek
Here, then, is the sovereign power with which the pastors of the church, by whatever name they be called, ought to be endowed. That is that they may dare boldly to do all things by God’s Word; may compel all worldly power, glory, wisdom, and exaltation to yield to and obey His majesty; supported by His power, may command all from the highest even to the last; may build up Christ’s household and cast down Satan’s; may feed the sheep and drive away the wolves; may instruct and exhort the teachable; may accuse, rebuke, and subdue the rebellious and stubborn; may bind and loose; finally, if need be, may launch thunderbolts and lightenings; but do all things in God’s Word. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, pp. 1156-57)
For both, don’t fear, except to fear God. Don’t be paralyzed. The Bible was written in a way that people who study it, seeking God’s help and being willing to follow it, can understand.
For example, all the people of Israel were expected to be able not only to understand the words of Scripture, but to be able to teach them diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Also, Jesus never said anything like, “I see how your problem arose here; Scripture just isn’t very clear on that issue.” Instead, He blamed misunderstanding of Scripture on the ones who failed to listen, not on the difficulty of Scripture. Again and again He answers questions with statements like: “Have you not read?” (Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:14; 22:31), or “Have you never read in the Scriptures?” (Matthew 21:43), or “You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). And third, most of the NT epistles were written to entire congregations, not only church leaders. Paul assumed that his hearers would understood what he wrote and then share those letters with other churches.