Method | Knowable Word

Recalculating: How Study Bibles Can Limit Bible Study

May 23, 2014 By Peter Krol

I’m supposed to be on vacation this week, and we’re working hard on some house projects. So I’m pleased that Jen Wilkin gave me permission to repost this terrific article from her blog. Jen Wilkin is a wife, mom to four great kids, and an advocate for women to love God with their minds through the faithful study of his Word. She writes, speaks, and teaches women the Bible. She lives in Flower Mound, Texas, and her family calls The Village Church home. Jen is the author of Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds (Crossway, forthcoming). You can follow her on Twitter.

We love our study Bibles. Many of us spend our daily reading time with a study Bible in hand, stopping at trickier passages to glance to the bottom of the page for help with interpretive difficulties. And we make progress – our reading plans stay on schedule, and we find that we reach the end of a passage with greater understanding than when we started. But are study Bibles as helpful as they seem?

Jim Clark (2007), Creative Commons

Several years ago I moved from Houston to Dallas. Having lived in Houston for thirteen years, I could drive its streets with ease. I had no idea how to navigate Dallas, so I used a GPS to get everywhere I needed to go. It was a great feeling – knowing almost nothing of the city, I could map a route to my destination instantaneously. I never had to feel lost or waste time wandering around on the wrong roads.

But three years later, I still didn’t know my way around Dallas without that GPS. If its battery died or if I left home without it, I was in big trouble. And then another strange thing happened: I took a trip back to Houston. In a city I knew well, I found that my GPS didn’t always pick the route that made the most sense. It still spoke with the same tone of authority it used in Dallas, but I could tell that it was choosing the obvious route over the most direct one.

The Benefit of Getting Lost

When I got back to Dallas I knew what I had to do: I had to allow myself to get lost. I had to wander around a bit, plan extra travel time, miss some exits, make wrong turns in order to learn for myself the routes my GPS had spoon-fed me. And in some cases, in order to learn better routes.

This is the same lesson I have learned about study Bibles. If I am not careful, they can mask my ignorance of Scripture and give me a false sense that I know my way around its pages. I do not labor for understanding because the moment I hit a hard passage, I immediately resolve my discomfort of feeling “lost” by glancing down at the notes. And hearing their authoritative tone, I can grow forgetful that they are, in fact, only man’s words – commentary, an educated opinion, profitable but not infallible.

My intent is not to question the value of commentary. Sound commentary is invaluable to the Bible student. My intent is to question its place in the learning process. Unless we consult it after we attempt to comprehend and interpret on our own, we tend to defer completely to its reasoning. The problem is not with our study Bibles, the problem is with our need for instant gratification and our dislike of feeling lost.

In short, if I never allow myself to get lost, I never allow the learning process to take its proper course. If I never fight for interpretation on my own, I accept whatever interpretation I am given at face value. And that’s a dangerous route to drive.

Right Use

So, what is the right use for a study Bible? What should you do if you, too, find it limits your Bible study because it is just too easy to consult? I would suggest the following:

Don’t throw it away, just put it away. Keep your study Bible on the shelf when you read. Get a Bible with only cross-references to use as your primary copy. Investigate cross-references to help you comprehend and interpret.
Treat study Bible notes as what they are: commentary, and brief commentary at that. Remember that they are man’s words, subject to bias and error. Read them respectfully but critically.
Consult multiple sources. Study notes should be a starting point for further inquiry, not a terminus. Once you have read for personal understanding in a note-free Bible, consult not one, but several study Bibles and commentaries from trusted sources. Look for consensus and disagreement among them.
Ask the Holy Spirit for insight. Humbly ask the Spirit to reveal truth to your heart and mind as you read for understanding on your own, and as you compare your own discoveries to those of trusted commentators. Even if you find you have drawn the wrong conclusion from a text, you are more likely to remember the better conclusion because you have worked hard to discover it.

So use your study Bible as it is intended to be used: as a reference point for your own conclusions, but not as a substitute for them. And get lost a little bit. Allow yourself to feel the extent of what you don’t understand. It’s a humbling feeling – but if your destination is wisdom and understanding, humility makes an excellent starting point for the journey. Seek with all of your heart, trusting the promise that those who do so will find that which they seek (Jer 29:13).

Beware Unpleasant Harmony

February 17, 2014 By Peter Krol

Have you ever tried singing unaccompanied hymns with a group of tone-deaf people? It presents a unique challenge: Can we hold the tune? Will we end in the same key in which we began? Is the melody recognizable, or would an eavesdropper assume we’re trying one of those new-fangled old-hymn-with-new-music arrangements (and one that wasn’t done very well)?

Vancouver 125 (2011), Creative Commons

With such a group, you’ve accomplished something special if you’ve gotten the group to sing in unison. Usually, you get harmony whether you want it or not. But the harmony is unpleasant if the original tune isn’t clear.

Biblical Harmonization

I just finished a series of Bible studies on the feeding of the 5,000. My goal has been to show that the Gospels recount the same event, but each with a different point. Last week, I summarized the unique intentions of each Gospel’s account.

In this final post, I’ll step back from the study’s content to reflect on the methodology behind it. In particular, I’d like to make explicit what was implicit all along: the dangers of harmonization.

Harmonization is the process of taking multiple accounts of the same event and combining them into a unified whole. So, we harmonize when we teach a lesson on “The Feeding of the 5,000” without looking at a specific passage.

Harmonization is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s very helpful when we’re reconstructing a historical event or building general biblical literacy. For example, most children’s Bibles won’t have a separate chapter for each of the four feeding accounts. They combine the accounts into a single chapter to help children become familiar with the event itself.

But harmonization can be unhelpful when it clouds the text’s message.

Some Dangers

While harmonization is not always bad, here are some dangers of not doing it carefully:

1. Divorcing the event from the text.

We’ll think of the event as a historical abstraction, which can lead to the second danger.

2. Assigning our own meaning to the event.

In the absence of a particular text (with a particular main point), we might assign any point we want to the event. Such abstraction can lead people to use the Bible to prove anything they want to prove. This approach is not submissive to either the text handed down to us or the divine Author who handed it down .

3. Dulling observation

We think of the little boy’s lunch as being central to any discussion of the feeding. We fail to notice that only John mentions this boy. Similarly, only Luke mentions the disciples’ concern with not only food but lodging for the multitude.

4. Hindering interpretation

Why does only John mention the little boy’s lunch? Why does only Luke mention the disciples’ concern to find the people not only food but lodging? Such questions simply don’t matter if we harmonize the accounts.

5. Flattening application

If I harmonize the feeding accounts, I might always land on the same application (probably something about giving up what little I have and trusting Jesus to multiply it). I’ll lose the rich variety of applications that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John make to different audiences.

A Way Forward

Let’s hear the text—each text within its context. Once there’s a clear tune, we can see how it fits together with others.

The key is to learn to sing before you try to harmonize.

Four Perspectives on the Message of Christ

January 31, 2014 By Peter Krol

Because the good news about Jesus Christ is for all nations (Gen 12:3, Is 66:18-20, Matt 28:19-20, Acts 11:17-18), the message has some inherent flexibility. It can be delivered in various ways to various people at various times.

Please don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying there are no false gospels (nor that any message = God’s message). I’m merely saying that the true gospel can’t be oversimplified to a single, universal formula. For example, “Jesus is Lord,” “Jesus is the Christ,” “Jesus died for our sins,” and “The Kingdom of God is among you” are all biblical and have their place, and each formula will resonate differently for different people groups (or even different individuals).

I believe that’s why God didn’t give a single portrait of Jesus in the New Testament. To communicate the breadth of his grace to the nations, God gave four Gospels, which provide four lenses through which we can view the work of Christ.

All four perspectives are true. All four are important. Each speaks truth in a slightly different way, though there’s significant overlap between them.

And each Gospel lens triggers further reflection on the person and work of Christ in the epistles.

As you read the New Testament, consider these subdivisions:

Kathryn Decker (2013), Creative Commons

Matthew: with James, Hebrews, Jude
Mark: with 1 & 2 Peter
Luke: with Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
John: with 1, 2, & 3 John, Revelation

Perspective #1: By Jews, for Jews

These books show Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament; he’s everything the Jews had been waiting for. These books clarify points of continuity and discontinuity between Old and New Testaments, and they preach the gospel to people familiar with the things of God.

Perspective #2: Peter’s Perspective

Mark was Peter’s close associate (1 Peter 5:13), and many scholars have noted Peter’s hand in Mark’s Gospel. Many episodes read like Peter’s memoirs (such as, Mark 1:36, 14:72). Mark’s Gospel and Peter’s epistles have a strong sense of “doing,” with comparatively little emphasis on “teaching.” These books preach the gospel to people who feel out-of-place in their world and who appreciate knowing just the facts.

Perspective #3: Paul’s Perspective

There’s a strong case for identifying Luke-Acts as a trial brief written to aid Paul’s defense in Roman court. Undoubtedly, Luke was Paul’s close associate and one of his only companions to the end (2 Tim 4:11). Thus, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, influenced Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus gives more attention to Gentiles and marginalized outsiders than he does in any other Gospel. Luke, Acts, and Paul’s epistles preach the gospel to people working through the implications of God’s grace and his “all nations” mission.

Perspective #4: John’s Perspective

John was a Jew through and through, and he had a remarkable tenderness in relationships (John 13:23-25). His Gospel and epistles assume unfathomably profound associations between Old and New Testaments, while simultaneously simplifying the message with such clarity that anyone can understand it. Son of God. Believe. Know. Love. Come, Lord Jesus. These books preach the gospel to people who need to learn (or re-learn) the basics.

Read, Study, Preach

These four subdivisions don’t represent the only way to read the New Testament; they merely provide a framework I’ve found to be helpful. Each perspective is like a set of tracks for shipping the cargo of the gospel to a different group of people. As you read the New Testament, you may find it helpful to stay on one track for a time, or you may find it helpful to maintain balance in all four.

As you teach and share the gospel with others, you may want to consider which track is most likely to connect with your audience. Are they already familiar with God or not? Do they have basic Bible knowledge or not? Do they feel like a minority or majority in their environment? Are they likely to feel excluded, and so need more coaxing? Or are they more likely to feel included, and so need more confrontation?

And with a more diverse audience, we have a greater need to cycle through all four perspectives.

Question: Which perspective resonates the most with you?

Structure: the Shape of Meaning

January 10, 2014 By Peter Krol

Sometimes the Bible’s meaning is plain and simple:

“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31, ESV).
“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb 8:1).

Many times, however, the meaning is not so plain:

“Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent” (Gen 9:20-21).
“Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus” (John 12:20-22).

Deborah Austin (2010), Creative Commons

When you’re studying a Bible passage and the point is not stated explicitly, one thing you can do is zoom out and observe the structure. Often, authors use structure to convey meaning, and we might not get the meaning unless we discern the shape of the text.

For example, Noah’s nakedness in the vineyard comes right after God dismantled and recreated the entire world (Gen 6-8). When we read of a naked man of the soil who consumes a fruit, and of a sin that enters God’s pristine world, alarm bells should go off in our heads, reminding us of Genesis 3. We suddenly realize that, though the Flood may have wiped people from the face of the earth, it could never wipe sin from their hearts. The structure of Genesis (cycles of creation-fall-new beginning) illuminates this strange episode for us.

For another example: John 12 concludes the first half of John’s Gospel. (Chapter 13 launches Act II, with most of the rest of the book describing the last 24 hours before Jesus’ death.) With the singling out of Philip and Andrew (John 12:22), we remember the beginning of the story, where these two men were some of the first disciples called by Jesus (John 1:40, 43). Only this time, Jesus doesn’t have to recruit anyone; disciples are coming to him. The initial “Come and see” (John 1:39, 46) has morphed into “Sir, we wish to see” (John 12:21). These bookends on John 1-12 (among others) show the tremendous impact Jesus’ years of ministry had on the world. This impact fulfills prophecies like Zech 8:20-23 and triggers Jesus’ troubled reflections on his looming death (John 12:23-33).

Over the next month or so, I’ll illustrate the value of structure through a study of the feeding of the 5,000. Through the context and structure of each Gospel, I hope to show that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John used the same event for a different purpose. Stay tuned!

Get to Know the Word this Year

December 20, 2013 By Peter Krol

Rob Pongsajapan (2006), Creative Commons

In my home office, there’s a fireproof safe where my wife and I keep our most precious possessions. While we partly use the safe for legal papers, we’ve filled most of it with the 45 love letters that document the development of our romance. This bundle of letters is more than a memento; it’s our story.

The story begins with a question mark. A love-struck young man composes a poetic thank-you note to a sweet girl who has done a nice thing for him. He ends the note with a simple question—a question clear enough to give her reason to write back, but vague enough to prevent any guilt should she choose not to. Either way, the presence of the question mark is indisputable, and with it, he takes a chance.

Thana Thaweeskulchai (2008), Creative Commons

She chooses to write back, asking her own vague question in return. Queen’s knight to c3. Game on.

The remaining details will remain private, but I’m willing to share this much: We pored over those letters. We wrapped our hearts in them, and we squeezed every juicy jot and tittle for another drop of meaning. We didn’t read those letters because we had to, though I admit there was a sense of compulsion. We didn’t read those letters to learn about each other, though it’s true each delivery brought more information. Technically, what we did with those letters wasn’t exactly reading. It was more like fixating or indulging.

And all for what? We sought this one thing: to get to know each other. We wanted a relationship.

Similarly, you and I get to read the Bible to build our relationship with the God who wrote it. He already knows us, and he wants us to get to know him. He became a man to reconcile us to himself and live with us forever, and he left a book documenting the whole affair. “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Sometimes we think we need a special encounter to know God. We seek a mountaintop experience where we can behold his glory and see him face to face. We want to hear his voice speak with clarity and power. We long to be wowed from on high.

The Apostle Peter had such an experience with Jesus, and he concluded that you and I don’t need to share it:

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. (2 Peter 1:16-19)

The text isn’t clear whether the prophetic word is more sure than the mountaintop experience, or more sure than it would have been without the mountaintop experience (does the word trump the mountaintop, or is it confirmed by the mountaintop?). Either way, Peter says this word is sure. We don’t need the mountaintop; we need to pay more attention to the word that has already been spoken.

That’s why, when Paul wanted to introduce people to Jesus, he introduced them to the Bible (Acts 17:1-3). The apostles were clear that Jesus was the main point of the Bible (John 1:45, 5:39-40, Luke 24:44-49, 1 Peter 1:10-12).

We study the Bible to know Jesus and to help others know him.

Maybe you’ve never studied the Bible without a tour guide or commentary, and you want to learn the basics. Perhaps you know the basics but want to make them instinctive, like an athlete perfecting a skill through endless repetition. Or perhaps you already teach the Bible, but you do so intuitively, unsure of how to take what you do and package it up for wholesale distribution among your flock.

Whatever your situation, a simple and sensible Bible study method will help. This year, how can you be more intentional about both learning to study the Bible and teaching others to study it? Do you think it would be worth it to get to know the Word who is the Truth?

The Danger of Staying the Same

December 6, 2013 By Peter Krol

I wrote last year that the greatest enemy of application is insight, but I’m having second thoughts. An even greater enemy may be inertia.

George M. Groutas (2010), Creative Commons

Physical science defines inertia as “a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.” Picture a boulder. Inertia keeps a stationary boulder still, and inertia keeps a moving boulder barreling on in the same direction. Moving the still boulder, or redirecting the moving boulder, requires force.

We are the boulders, and application produces change. Since we can’t apply the Bible without overcoming our inertia, application done right will always be a challenge. And we should expect this challenge to take two forms.

First, we face the challenge of movement.

Inertia keeps us in the same place, but the Lord wants to move us. We grow comfortable with how things are, but through the word, the Holy Spirit moves us toward what might be. He pushes, pulls, nudges, convicts, cajoles, begs, batters, and compels. He does whatever he needs to do to get us moving toward Christ. Thus the ignorant person gets a clue. The indifferent person begins to care. The idle person gets to work.

Second, we face the challenge of redirection.

Inertia keeps us moving in the same direction, but the Lord wants to turn us toward him. We like to keep doing what we’re doing, but through the word, the Holy Spirit adjusts our trajectory and directs our path. He disciplines, directs, bumps, pursues, pesters, collides, invites, and overwhelms. He does whatever he needs to do to alter our course so we face toward Christ. Thus the angry person learns to love. The argumentative person learns to listen. The manipulative person learns to let go.

Application is terribly inconvenient.

It makes us doers of the word, unlike inertia, which encourages us to remain hearers of the word. As James writes:

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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. (James 1:22-25, ESV)

James takes issue not with hearing but with hearing and not doing. Hearing is good; it means that you “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). But hearing without doing is inconsistent. It’s like viewing your own portrait and honestly wondering who’s the looker. You’re not acting like yourself, and people should wonder what’s wrong. God’s perfect law promotes a life of liberty, but obstinate inertia eventually becomes an imprisoning insanity. Jesus likened it to building a beach hut in a hurricane zone (Matt 7:26-27). Make every effort to overcome your inertia and be not only a hearer but also a doer.

Hearers of the word go to church. Doers of the word discuss the sermons later and find connections to their daily lives.
Hearers of the word love theology. Doers of the word know when to attempt persuasion and when to abandon a quarrel.
Hearers can identify what they’ve learned. Doers can identify how they’ve grown.
Hearers have questions. Doers get answers.
Hearers talk about obeying the civil authorities. Doers don’t exceed the speed limit.
Hearers feel convicted. Doers make changes.
Hearers see how people need to change. Doers see how they themselves need to change.
Hearers know who Jesus is. Doers look more like him every day.

When the founders of the United States of America declared their independence from Great Britain, they based their actions on certain self-evident truths, including the Creator’s endowment of inalienable rights to all men. Among those immutable rights was the pursuit of happiness. What is the pursuit of happiness? According to an 1884 Supreme Court ruling, it is:

…the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give them their highest enjoyment.[1]

The pursuit of happiness is the improvement of life. King George’s threat to the colonies wasn’t so much a threat of sadness as a threat to maintain the status quo. He wanted things to continue as they had been, with the colonies under his thumb, paying well, and unable to improve their communities. In other words, the greatest threat to the pursuit of happiness is inertia.

Change is worth fighting for.

Question: How do you see and resist the problem of inertia in your life?

[1] Butchers’ Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746, 757 (1884).

Don’t Miss Jesus in the New Testament

November 8, 2013 By Peter Krol

I once wrote about how to see Jesus in any Bible passage, where I focused on interpreting the Old Testament. I showed how Jesus’ words in Luke 24:46-47 provide a straightforward template through which we can interpret any Old Testament passage.

Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47, ESV)

Every passage of Scripture reveals Jesus by explaining at least one of the following truths:

Truth #1: The Messiah would suffer (die)
Truth #2: The Messiah would rise from the dead.
Truth #3: We must repent of our sin and be forgiven.
Truth #4: This message—that the Messiah’s death and resurrection make forgiveness possible—must be proclaimed to all nations.

I’d like to add a brief word about interpreting the New Testament, because, astonishingly, we can often miss Jesus when we read it. Jesus’ four truths in Luke 24:46-47 apply just as much to the New Testament as to the Old Testament, and we miss the point when we miss the connection. Here are three examples.

1. All four Gospels magnify and climax on Jesus’ death and resurrection; they present Jesus as much more than a role model. Thus, Jesus’ healing miracles often show Jesus “trading places” with sufferers in order to save them (Matt 8:14-17); Jesus is not only an example of social justice but also a savior to the ostracized and the unjust.

2. Much of Acts and many epistles elaborate on how Jesus’ message is for all nations; since Jews and Gentiles were brought together in one body, any person of any gender, race, or class can freely receive Jesus’ forgiveness and unite with his body.

3. Instructional passages—like the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:16-26) or the love chapter (1 Cor 13)—don’t make us into more righteous, more acceptable, people; they show us what happens to people whose sins are forgiven because they have trusted in Christ.

As you interpret, don’t stop until you see Jesus in every passage.

3 Skills to Help You Find the Main Point

October 25, 2013 By Peter Krol

You’re swirling in details. You tried the OIA method of Bible study, and it yielded more observations and more questions than you could handle. You thought you’d dabble in the magic of Bible study, but the spell has taken over, and the water line has exceeded flood stage. You’re tempted to cue “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and drown your exhaustion in a bucket of popcorn.

Don’t lose hope. You’re almost there; you just need to pull it all together and integrate the details into a coherent main point.

Such integration matters because ancient authors didn’t waste space with meaningless details. Every word had a purpose. Every sentence captured an idea. Every paragraph advanced the agenda. And every section had a main point. The accumulation of these points promoted the goal of bringing the audience closer to the Lord. These main points are the ones worth fighting for.

So how do we figure out the main point? I’ll give 3 tips and illustrate them from my recent posts on Proverbs 5.

1. Always ask “why?”

The challenge of interpretation is to move past the “what” to discover the “why” of the passage. Why is this text here? What was the author’s agenda?

Though most Bibles have headings at the beginning of each section (Proverbs 5 in ESV: “Warning Against Adultery”), these headings are usually observation summaries and not interpretive main points. These summaries help when you’re flipping through and trying to find a specific verse, but they don’t always comprise the passage’s meaning. To convert these summary headings to main points, sometimes you only have to ask “why.” For example, “Why does this passage warn us against adultery?”

Similarly, you can take any or all of your observations, ask “why,” and move closer to the main point.

2. Account for the context.

We’ve seen how the book overview places the work in history. This historical context influences our reading of the text and helps us to see the main point. In the case of Proverbs 5, we see Solomon training a new generation of nobility to lead Israel with purity and integrity.

In addition to the historical, two further types of context should guide us.

First, examine the literary context. What was the main point of the previous section of text? How does the author move from that section into this section? What issues lingered at the end of that section, and how does this section address those issues? Because Genesis 1 is the beginning, we have no prior literary context. Instead, this chapter will establish the context for everything that follows. Thus, we should read Genesis 2:4-25 (and following passages) in light of Genesis 1:1-2:3.

Second, examine any intertextual context. That is, use a search engine, cross-references, or list of Old Testament quotations to find other parts of the Bible that quote this section (or are quoted by it), and figure out the connection between them. When God inspired authors to quote other passages, he was showing us how to interpret those passages.

3. Track the author’s flow of thought.

Ask: How did the author get from the first verse to the last verse? Break the chapter into paragraphs or stanzas, and figure out each paragraph’s/stanza’s main point, which is a sub-point on the author’s agenda. String those points together to see how one paragraph/stanza moves to the next. If you’re still stumped, you can break each paragraph/stanza down into sentences and track the flow from sentence to sentence. Don’t give up; this challenging skill gets easier with practice.

For Proverbs 5, I outlined the flow of thought in my first post:

verses 1-6: not all sexual temptation is as good as it seems
verses 7-14: the wrong choices have dire consequences
verses 15-20: utter unselfishness in the context of marital love is surprisingly intoxicating
verses 21-23: those who think they know satisfaction better than God does have sprung their own trap

So, compiling all my observation and interpretation, my final post on Proverbs 5 reached this main point: The wise can see through the culture’s illusion of sexual “freedom.” This main point took me right to Jesus and on to application.

Sexual freedom is truly an illusion. Jesus submitted to the cross and the grave so we could be free of both forever; he proved it by his glorious resurrection. Now we get to image him to the world. Find your freedom in self-denial. Obtain life through your death. Secure satisfaction by serving and satisfying others, especially your spouse.

The wise person sees the culture’s illusions, blasts them with Bible dynamite, and wins others to radically selfless, Christ-like joy, far more exciting than either religious prudishness or enslaving immorality.

Each text has a point. These three skills will help you get there so you can see Jesus and find eternal life in him.

Fight for the Main Point

October 18, 2013 By Peter Krol

The main points of the Bible are the ones worth fighting for. Often, however, Christians disagree over things other than the main points. And while we’re not wrong to draw conclusions about secondary, debatable, or implied points, such conclusions must never drown out the Bible’s main points.

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

The Pharisees demonstrate the problem. As the fundamentalists of their day, they cared about God’s truth. They wanted to glorify God and live lives pleasing to him. They passionately protected important doctrines, and they went to great lengths to win converts and change the world.

But in the process of remembering good things, they forgot the best things.

They attended Bible studies to improve their lives, but they didn’t embrace Life when God sent him (John 5:39-40).

They promoted God’s moral standards to a degenerate, fallen world, but they plotted harm on the day designed for doing good (Mark 3:1-6).

They put God first over every relationship, but they neglected God’s own wishes for human relationships (Matthew 15:3-6).

Sometimes Jesus condemns them for doing the wrong things, but sometimes he condemns them for neglecting the best things. Consider this judgement in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt 23:23-24, ESV)

Notice that they should have continued tithing. They weren’t expected to exercise justice, mercy, or faithfulness instead of giving 10%. They were expected to exercise justice, mercy, and faithfulness in addition to it. They always drank skim milk, but then got caught eating too much ice cream.

Today, we likewise can get distracted from the Bible’s main points. The worst distractions are not bad things but good things. They’re not false teaching but true teaching. They’re not opposed to God’s kingdom but in favor of God’s kingdom. These distractions consist of things that should concern us, but they’re not the only things that should concern us. Nor are they the main things that should concern us. We should reserve plenty of bandwidth for the weightier matters.

For example, we study Genesis 1 and focus our discussion on the length or literalness of the days of creation. We spend so much time on the “what” that we forget to seek the “why,” and we mistakenly believe we know the “why” because we’ve discovered the “what.” We might get the “what” (“What is the length of each day?”), and we should try hard to get the “what.” But we must press on to get the “why” (“Why does the author tell the story of creation as a sequence of 7 days?”). We must not neglect the fact that God’s creative process sets the pattern for our lives on earth (Mark 10:6-9, 2 Cor 4:5-6, Heb 4:1-5). And we must not ignore Jesus—the creator, light, life, word, sustainer, ruler, subduer, multiplier, author of faith, image of the invisible God, and firstborn of all creation.

For another example, we study Hebrews 11 and trumpet the heroes of faith. And rightly so, as the text recounts their lives with much fanfare. But we must not miss the main point. It’s a faith hall of fame and not a works hall of fame. The point is not so much to show the greatness of these heroes as it is to show their smallness. We should fix our gaze on these heroes, but only as long as we keep Jesus in our field of vision. The heroes huddle around us, bearing witness to the real Hero, Jesus (Heb 12:1-2).

Finding a passage’s main point is hard work, but we must fight to get it. And once we’ve got it, we must fight to keep it.

Presumption Kills Bible Interpretation

October 11, 2013 By Peter Krol

Kate Ter Haar (2012), Creative Commons

Presumption is the act of drawing conclusions from limited evidence. Courts presume defendants to be innocent until the body of evidence convicts beyond all doubt. When you drive through a green light, you presume the opposing traffic sees a red light. Furthermore, you presume those drivers won’t hit the gas until they see green.

Since you’re not omniscient, every decision you make is based on presumption. There’s nothing inherently wrong with presumption, and avoiding it completely is impossible.

However, presumption is deadly when it trumps careful investigation. Unrestrained presumption can obstruct the process of interpretation.

Let’s say you want to buy a house. You find one you like, and you sign a contract to purchase it. You pack your belongings and prepare to relocate your family. But on move-in day, you discover that the “seller” didn’t actually own the house. He’s powerless to hand it over to you. When you try to move in, you find another family living in the house with no intent to move out. You’re stuck, partly because you presumed too much.

Presumption can be devastating in big life decisions, but it also causes trouble in the mundane. We presume a curt reply to imply anger. We mistake friendliness for attraction. We impute motives. We scold and convict a child on the testimony of a single embittered sibling. We rush to our conclusions and find security in the strength of our convictions. We admit no further evidence.

Careless presumption will kill your Bible study. It will strangle observation and bear stillborn application. It will make you look like the stereotypical, narrow-minded Christian, and it will diminish your influence for the Lord. By strengthening your confidence in questionable conclusions, presumption will cloud your relationship with Jesus and your experience of his grace. At worst, it may clog your pipeline to God. Guard yourself against every form of unexamined, unhindered presumption.

Relativism can be a form of presumption, when we believe a text means whatever we want it to mean. We’re not compelled to investigate the evidence, so we’re “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph 4:14, ESV). We lose our anchor in Christ.

Tradition can be a form of presumption, when it bullies observation, threatens investigation, and demands adherence to a sanctioned message. Now I’m no hater of tradition; it’s both valuable and necessary. But when it drives—and isn’t driven by—interpretation, it rampages and destroys like a toddler in a Lego city. Unexamined tradition trains people to think only what they were taught to think. And what they were taught to think may or may not be the truth.

Education can be a form of presumption, when, like tradition, it generates thoughts but not thinkers. Irresponsible education—whether theistic or atheistic—results in students who presume to know the Bible, but who have ceased listening to it. For such learners, Jedi Master Yoda may prove instructive: “You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Premature application can be a form of presumption, when we jump to conclusions in the name of relevance. We read and observe the text, but we move straight to application. We want our answers to be quick and practical, but we fail to nurture curiosity.

Authority can be a form of presumption, when we carelessly trust what the experts (be they pastors, professors, commentators, or Knowable Word bloggers) say about a text. We might learn to regurgitate their conclusions, but we won’t learn to reach them ourselves. Our teaching will lack substantiation, and the next generation will grow disillusioned by what it perceives to be hollow.

Tradition, education, application, and authority are all good things. In the right context, presumption is a good thing. But unchecked, it will defy the discovery of meaning.

« Previous Page