You may have hopes that you can open your Bible and get a quick dose of spiritual wisdom but the Bible wasn’t written to you. You may want to claim a verse like “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” but that verse isn’t a verse about parenting and its not about your children. “It is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment” is not a verse about death
and judgment, it’s a supporting argument of a larger discourse discussing Christ’s atonement. “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith” is not a verse about evangelism. Sounds like it in isolation but in the larger picture of the book it’s talking about Philemon’s generosity.
The Bible isn’t a fortune cookie that you can crack open and get out a pithy little message that’s going to help you through the day. Instead it is a collection of books, poems, histories, tragedies and more and if you want to “apply it to your life” you’ve first got to consider how that particular message was meant to apply to someone else’s life. That’s right, the Bible wasn’t written to you. It was written to the people of Israel, and Philemon, and Theophilus and the church at Corinth. But that ain’t you. So you’re reading someone else’s mail. Or listening in on one half of a phone conversation. If you want to apply it to your life, first you’ve got to approach the text carefully, even humbly and ask, “What was the original author saying to the original readers and why?” That’s not an easy question. You won’t be able to answer it in just five minutes of Bible reading a day. You won’t be able to answer that question by jumping from one section of the Bible to the next as you go through your Bible reading plan. Imagine reading the Sunday paper like you read your Bible. Monday you read one paragraph of the front page, then you read one paragraph of the sports section, now jump over to the opinion page and read a paragraph there. That’s all for today. On Tuesday you can continue reading the lead story and find out how the game ended and read some more of the op-ed piece. Is that the way you read the paper? Why not? Because chopping up the Sunday paper like that destroys the message.
The Bible isn’t meant to be treated like a bag of “trail mix” where you fish out all the sweet parts that you like and leave the rest. There are treasures in “the Book” but only if you’re willing to receive the message in the way it was intended. In God’s word we have a treasure of literature unsurpassed in the world. It would be worth reading just for that reason. Have you read the book of Nahum? The poetry is so vivid you are transported into a world of clashing swords and careening chariots. Have you walked the streets of Jerusalem with Jeremiah? The Lamentation is moving in the extreme. But the Bible isn’t meant to be just studied. “Meditate on it day and night.” “Your word have I hidden in my heart.” “The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.”
God has preserved these messages over many centuries and brought it into your language. It is worth the trouble to understand his message on his terms. Its not a grab bag of moralisms, sound bites or bumper-sticker sayings. The Bible means something but not necessarily what you think it does. The truth is there, but truth taken out of context is destroyed or can be turned into a lie. Read it in the original packaging. Usually that means reading an entire letter, or an entire discourse, or a major section of a book. Read it and read it again. Ask questions about the text. Who wrote it to whom? What is the occasion of the letter? Is the message of this text universal or was it addressing a specific person or situation? If it was written to a specific person or situation, is there an indirect application of this truth for your life?
The Bible wasn’t written to you, but it was written for you. Read it the right way and you’ll hear the voice of God.
More posts in this series:
Scriptures cited: 3 John 4; Hebrews 9:27; Philemon 6; Nahum; Lamentations; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 119:11; James 1:25
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18-19
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes: even so, Father; because so it seemed good in your sight. Luke 10:21
Because the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. Acts 2:39
He that does not love me does not keep not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. I have spoken these things to you, still being present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you. John 14:24-26
Who has ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mark 4:9, 4:23, 7:16, 8:8; Luke 14:25
God, who at various times and in diverse manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Heb 1:1-2
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently on that house, and could not shake it: because it was founded on a rock. But he that hears, and does not do, is like a man that without a foundation built a house on the earth; against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. Luke 6:46-49
Amen!
Thanks for this, David, I really enjoyed reading it. I’ve blogged it here.
Thanks, talmida. I liked your comment about “bullets.”
Eddie Arthur and Smart Christian have also mentioned this post. The Blogger “links to this post” thing doesn’t always catch links.
Outstanding. I quoted liberally from your post on my blog today. Peace.
Wow. Goodness. Just … WOW.
Thanks so much for this!
I’m reading the whole of the Bible through this year and your post could not be more timely. I am tremendously grateful for my evangelical heritage but it does distress me to think of the ‘bite-sized’ ‘piece-meal’ and terribly subjective way in which I was taught to read scripture. I still use the NIV but these days I prefer more literal translations. I’m getting on very well with the NRSV – my edition includes the Apocrypha, which I will check out once I’ve finished my reading plan this year with the canon proper.
Fabulous post.
I really like the sentence about listening in on half of a phone conversation. That is the context we bring to the study. And that puts us into the proper attitude before the text.
Well done, brother. Well done.
O!, something I think you might like: I once heard someone say, “The Bible is not an unsorted daily devotional.” I’ve always liked that.
I, too, have linked this thought provoking and challenging article on my site, The Bible: Not Written to Us? What? I myself will probably give this at least 3 or 4 read-overs to catch it all. Well done!
Blessing!
Tom
Doctrine Matters
Excellent, thank you. I have linked to it, if only to have the reference myself for the future. God bless you in your incredible work.
Thanks all for the encouragement.
Philippa, your comment made me think I might have come across as being against Bible reading plans. In fact I use one myself but in a slightly different way. I tend to read through a single book, marking off all the chapters until I’m done and then I go back and start working on the next book. The result is that I’m always behind on my reading plan (embarrassingly so, right now!) but at least I am able to concentrate on a single message. This is worthy of a post in itself if anyone has blogged on that subject let me know. I know at Apologia Christi they have been blogging on “quiet time guilt”: http://apologiachristi.blogspot.com/2006/05/blog-topic-of-week-freedom-from-quiet.html
Wow!
I have been wanting to post on this topic, and I was even going to call it “The Bible isn’t a letter to you.” But you have said everything I wanted to say and more.
Can the Holy Spirit use a Scripture that was written to the church at Thessalonica to say something specific to me today? Can he use what was written to them as something specific to me today?
I think your point, though solid in that it’s important to know audience and style of literature and all of that, takes away from the current movement of the Spirit of God. Though God doesn’t want us to use His Word as a fortune cookie, He does want us to see Him in it and come away having met with Him in it. I know the Bible was written to others, but it was also written to me.
I agree with you that we will continue to uncover more and more, the more we study and learn, but I also think that we study so much that we miss the Spirit of God wanting to speak to us in the simple. Can the words on the page not mean something different to you or I today than they meant then? Sure they can! God is the author and this is not a stagnant book. Is the Holy Spirit incapable of appearing to people who just read the words? I think we are called to use the brains God has given us, but do not trivialize the MANY ways that God can use His Word for it’s readers today.
Nice post.
BJ,
Thanks for your comment. The role of the Holy Spirit in revealing truth to each one of us is very important and frequently misunderstood. I’m going to post on that topic this week.
“It is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment” is not a verse about death and judgment, it’s a supporting argument of a larger discourse discussing Christ’s atonement.
Isn’t it more accurate to say that it is a verse about death and judgment that is part of a supporting argument of a larger discourse discussing Christ’s atonement? It’s true that Paul’s larger intent in the passage isn’t to talk about death and judgment as his primary subject, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t about death and judgment. It wouldn’t support his larger claim if it weren’t.
I agree with your post on the whole and think you’re making a very important point that many evangelicals misunderstand, but I have trouble seeing how this verse is not about what it actually says, even given that it’s primarily being used to support something that’s in many ways a very different subject.
Jeremy,
I agree with you. That particular phrase was not as accurate as it could have been. Likewise with the verse from Philemon, I think we can be confident that Paul wasn’t talking about evangelism but we are less sure that he was talking about generosity.
Great post.
I have an old pamphlet from one Word of Faith preacher, Jim Kaseman. It is supposed to be used like this: there are headlines for every area in your life, such as economy, sickness, fear, and so on.
It says that you should confess these things every day to make the redemption real in your life. And it is not the actual scripture passage that you should confess, it is like “I do not allow any sickness in my body”, and then a reference to some scripture passage.
What do you think of this use of the scriptures?
At the very least I can say that “confessing” like that is not modeled in the Bible. I’m not a theologian or anthropologist but in my opinion what you describe is more attuned to animist practices in which people try to control the spirit world through spells and encantations.
Compare Jesus’ responses to Satan during the temptation. He was referencing Biblical truth not as a means of banishing evil but of countering falsehood.
What do you think?
Thank you! I’ve been grieving over this issue lately, and I’ve been trying to teach my children and the youth I’m responsible for as youth teacher to get to know the Bible this way–and get to know the whole covenant story. Unfortunately, our lesson plans have been giving the kids carpal tunnel by forcing them to flip through so many isolated verses. Toward the end of the term, my co-teacher and I just stopped using those lessons and started reading big chunks of the Bible to the youth.
Like a lot of commenters here, I’ve been working on a similar post for several days. It’s titled, “The Uncertainty Principle,” modeled after that principle in quantum physics. It gives caution about using verses with such Newtonian precision that we forget that the gospel is more wavelike than particle-like. Although I know there will be a lot of people who disagree with me, I’m getting a stronger nudge to go ahead with it after reading your post.
Update: Beyond Words has in fact posted on Bible study and the Uncertainty Principle here:
The Uncertainty Principle Part I.
I’m blissfully unaware of the fine points of quantum physics. I think there’s a cat in a box somewhere…
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Garbage… No wonder God is disgusted with so many modern day liberal “Christians”. I would be too, if these people professed to know me.