WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

  One of the most common complaints of those who are struggling with Bible study is, "This is great, but what does it mean?" Many people feel they are not qualified to understand the Bible, and they become intimidated and frustrated, and begin to lose interest. Here is the truth of the matter: all born-again children of God are qualified to understand the Bible.

  In fact, if you have been faithful in your reading, you will have already seen the Scriptures beginning to come alive to you. You are learning that the Holy Spirit responds to your prayerful approach to the Word with little parcels of understanding here and there, enough to keep you coming back for more.

  But there are potential pitfalls in your path as you learn the Scriptures. Many a well-meaning believer has "gone off the deep end" with an extreme interpretation of a verse or two of Scripture; most cultish groups have begun this way. Thankfully, though, God has provided some safeguards for you. Of course, you can't use them if you don't know about them. That's what you are about to learn.

  We are going to learn some principles of Bible interpretation. The fancy word for this area of learning is hermeneutics. Bible schools usually have courses on hermeneutics, which, again, boils down to some helpful rules or hints to help open up the Bible to our understanding.

  A key word to keep in mind is balance. There is a huge amount of information in the Word of God. On any given topic there is more information than the natural mind can easily process. By following a few simple principles, we can stay out of trouble as we learn the messages of the Bible.

  Bear in mind that the list of principles I am about to give you is by no means complete. As we have noted, there are entire courses of study given to the principles of interpretation alone. What we are about to consider is a short list of guidelines that have helped me greatly. Here they are:

  1. Let the Bible interpret the Bible
  We have already discussed "outside sources", such as commentaries. They can be nice tools if the user is disciplined enough not to rely too much on them. The Apostle Paul, when talking about the things of the Spirit, said this: "Which things we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

  In other words, apples should be judged by the standards of apples, not of oranges. We should learn the Bible, not through the wisdom that man teaches, but through that which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual (things) with spiritual (things): in other words, Bible passages with other Bible passages. If a passage of Scripture raises a question in your mind, remember that the answer to the question is also in the Bible, if you will seek the Lord and dig it out.

  The Bible says that the people of Berea, to whom Paul and Silas preached the Gospel, "were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11). They didn't stop with just a few isolated verses, but analyzed and checked out the whole Bible that they had then (the Old Testament), comparing passages that spoke of the coming Messiah, knowing that "...no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20).

  2. Build your understanding on more than one Scripture
  2 Corinthians 13:1 says, "...In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." This principle is found throughout the Bible, beginning in Deuteronomy 17:6, where it is stated that no one would be put to death for wrongdoing without the testimony of two or three witnesses. In the Corinthian passage, Paul was referring to his plans to visit the church at Corinth. In other words, he was broadening the principle from its original reference concerning witnesses at a trial to words that are spoken about other matters.

  This principle is a very important safeguard against an unbalanced understanding of a single Scripture. It is a common problem for someone to take a single verse of Scripture, build an understanding based on what it appears to be saying, and act mistakenly because the understanding of that Scripture is not sound. For example, some have taken Mark 16:18- "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not harm them..." - to mean that the intentional handling of venomous snakes and drinking of poison should be a part of a worship service. The problem is, there is not another Scripture that really supports that interpretation, nor is there a Biblical example of that kind of behavior as part of a service. Jesus did tell His disciples that He was giving them power "to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy..." (Luke 10:19). It is clear from the rest of the passage that Jesus is mainly referring to demon powers, although protection from poisonous serpents would be included also. Paul was bitten by a deadly viper and survived (Acts 28:3-6), much to the amazement of those who saw it. But Paul did not intentionally take up the viper. To do so would be to act against another stated principle of Scripture: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 6:16; Matthew 4:7). So what is the meaning of Mark 16:18? From the other Scriptural evidence, and from the lack of other "establishing witnesses" to the idea of intentionally handling snakes, we understand this: if a believer, through no choice of his own, comes in contact with a deadly serpent, or if he unknowingly drinks poison, he will be protected (if he believes: see Mark 16:17: "And these signs shall follow them that believe...").

  Proverbs 24:6 says that "...in the multitude of counsellors there is safety." And Psalm 119:24 says of God's Word, "Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors." By the word "testimonies" is meant the Scriptures, as all of Psalm 119 is about the Word of God. If we combine these two Scriptures in order to state a principle, we could say, "in the multitude of Scriptures there is safety."

  3. Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Teacher
  There are many good sources of information about the Bible. And there are many anointed, God-ordained teachers of the Word of God. But none of what you read or hear is useful unless the Holy Spirit gives you a personal witness of the truth of what is being said. That is because the Holy Spirit Himself is our Master Teacher.

  Jesus introduced the promise of the Holy Spirit to His disciples in part by saying, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26; see also John 16:13). Jesus spoke this in the process of telling them that He was going away to be with the Father, but that He would send the Holy Spirit to be their Instructor.

  1 John 2:27 says, "But the anointing ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, ye shall abide in him." John was telling the church that there were those who would "seduce" them (verse 26) into error and wrong teaching, but that the anointing of the Holy Spirit would teach them the truth, and cause them to remain in Christ. So the Holy Spirit teaches us today as we look to Him as our Bible Instructor.

  It is important also to point out what this passage is not saying. It is not the Lord's intention that we have no earthly teachers. In fact, in fourth chapter of the Book of Ephesians, the Bible says that Jesus placed in the church certain types of ministers, including teachers, who would be needed to mature the saints until the Body of Christ reached its complete fullness (Ephesians 4:11-13). So what are we to learn from 1 John 2:27? Two things: that we don't need someone constantly teaching us so that we might understand the Word of God (one of the marks of cultish groups is that they insist that your understanding of the Word come from them and their program); and that you should check what a teacher says against the full counsel of Scripture and by the "internal witness" of the Holy Spirit with your own spirit (Romans 8:16).

  We are to honor and respect those who teach us the Word of God (see 1 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 13:7). But since the Holy Spirit's teaching ministry is available to every believer, each of us is responsible to see that he or she understands the Word the way the Lord intends us to.

  4. Approach the Word with an attitude of obedience
  Many people, including some believers, read and study the Word of God with little or no intention that they will try to walk out, with the Lord's help, what they learn from the Bible. There are people who have a surface knowledge of the Scriptures, and may even be able to quote them easily, but never let the teachings of the Scriptures have an impact on the way they live. It is no wonder that these people seem to receive little understanding of the Word.

   When the uptight religious leaders of Jesus' day wondered how He had such mastery of the Word without His having received their type of formal education, He told them that what He taught did not originate with Him, but with the Father. Then He taught this vital key to understanding the Word: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine..." (John 7:16-17). In other words, those who were willing to do God's will would be receive an understanding of the Word.

  James 1:22 says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Bottom line: if you are not willing to do what God's Word says, then you will not properly understand it, but will instead be deceived, by your own unwillingness.

  I have known Christians who approach the Word of God in order to find out what they can get away with and still go to heaven. That is an attitude not worthy of the Name by which they are called, nor is it conducive to an understanding of the Scriptures.

  There are other principles of interpretation, but by faithfully following these four, you can go a long way in your understanding of the Bible. They are drawn, not from a man's textbook, but from the Scriptures themselves.

  There are a few other things I would like to mention before we close out our study in basic hermeneutics. One is that there can be more than one level of meaning to a Scripture. Some teach that a verse or passage can have only one meaning, and that is what was meant by the writer in the exact context in which he was writing. The "context" of a Scripture is its surroundings, the verses that come before it and after it, and it can be a valuable factor in learning what the Scripture means. While I believe context is important, I also believe it can be overstressed, and may limit the Lord's being able to teach us some things. For example, earlier in this chapter, I quoted 2 Corinthians 13:1: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." But Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was drawing upon Old Testament Scriptures which applied only to the method of determining guilt or innocence at a trial. Paul used it to support his desire to visit the Corinthian church. The strict context people, if they were consistent, would almost be forced to say that Paul quoted Moses out of context. But that would be impossible to those of us who believe that every word in the Bible is the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Let's respect context, but not put God in a box.

  In Acts chapter 10, Peter had a vision of great sheet coming down from heaven, containing all manner of animals. A voice said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat" (verse 13). But Peter argued that he had never eaten anything forbidden by the Old Testament dietary laws. But the voice said to him, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (verse 15). This was followed by the Holy Spirit's instruction to Peter to go to the house of a gentile (something devout Jews never did), and preach the Gospel there.

  When analyzing this passage and comparing it to other Scriptures, it becomes clear that there are two important statements the Holy Spirit is making in this passage: one, that the Old Testament dietary laws were now done away with in the New Covenant (supported by 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and Romans 14:17), and that the gentiles were no longer to be considered unclean and were now to have the Gospel preached to them (supported by Matthew 12:21 and Acts 9:15).

  Which brings up another point. How do we deal with the fact that the Old and new Testaments sometimes appear to be in contradiction to one another? Remember, the Old Testament is the Word of God, too, but some aspects of the old covenant have been replaced in the new: animal sacrifices, for example, have given way to the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus for the atonement of our sins (see Hebrews 10:4-9).

  It is also important to remember that Old Testament principles that have not been specifically cancelled out in the New Testament are still in effect. Nine of the Ten Commandments, for example, are restated in the New Testament (the exception being the keeping of the Sabbath day). But the New Testament makes it clear that we are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 14:6).

  Even those parts of the Old Testament that have been negated by the New still have value, because they were written for our example (1 Corinthians 10:6,11).

  Don't be limited by some formula as to how many levels of meaning a Scripture may have. The safeguards against deception are not always strictly in the context (although we should never ignore context), but they are in the four principles described above.