Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

Copyright © 2012–2025 DiscipleMakers, except guest articles (copyright author). Used by permission.

You are here: Home / Archives for Application

Applying the Old Testament in Africa

By

I appreciate seeing how Christian brethren around the world seek to apply the Bible in their own context. While the interpretation of the Bible is rooted in the author’s intention for his original audience, application of the Bible can and should be as varied and diverse as are the people laboring to apply it.

And there is much we can learn from watching those in other culture apply the Scripture to the particular issues they face. For example, this piece from Africa wrestles with proper application of the Old Testament to contemporary African issues such as circumcision and polygamy.

Polygamy was not God’s plan for humanity. The fact that God made concessions to the polygamous practices of Abraham, Jacob, and David does not mean that he approved their sexual choices. Abraham and Jacob were still influenced by their cultures as they were learning God’s principles for family. David used polygamy to form alliances. Unfortunately, some Christians in Africa have used the example of Abraham to justify polygamy. God honoured Abraham’s faith; he nowhere condoned Abraham’s polygamy.

Check it out!

One of the Most Important Discussion Questions

By

Stephen Kneale writes about all the different kinds of Bible studies held in his church. Perhaps their example will give you some ideas for what could be possible in your church.

But at the end of his piece, he makes a crucial point. Regardless of what sort of discussion or study group we’re holding, we must always make sure our conclusions and applications are drawn reasonably from the argument of the biblical text. And when people make spontaneous connections to all the different areas of their lives, leaders ought to help them remain anchored to the text.

And one of the most direct ways to do that is to ask the simple question: So where do you get that from the text? As Kneale writes:

This matters because not every comment in every bible study is of equal worth. Not every application of scripture is a valid application of scripture. What we are trying to model to people in these studies is how we helpfully read the Bible. We are either showing how we understand the text in front of us or we are highlighting how we rightly apply the text to ourselves, without making applications that are not permitted or bear no real relation to the text itself.

Check it out!

Trust and Obey

By

I love this reflection from Seth Lewis on “The Key to Understanding the Bible.” He writes about how the Bible cannot be read and understood like other books. This book demands trust and obedience before it yields its storehouses of wisdom and knowledge.

You won’t know the “peace of God that surpasses understanding” until you “present your requests to God” in prayer (Philippians 4:7). 

You won’t experience the truth of Jesus’ promise that he will “give you rest” unless you accept his invitation to “come to me, all who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28).

You can read that “godliness with contentment is great gain” but you’ll never understand that gain until you are growing in godliness and contentment (1 Timothy 6:6).

Check it out!

Does God Know His Plans for You, or Only for Exiled Israel?

By

Over the years, numerous readers have requested a “context matters” post on Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

I have not provided one, partly on the ground that the misuse of this verse is well documented on many other websites. I have, instead, provided a satirical “context matters” post on the frequently overlooked life advice of Jeremiah 25:27. We can apply precisely the same reading strategy to Jer 25:27 that we generally apply to Jer 29:11, with an unexpectedly staggering result.

With that said, here comes Christopher Kou with a wonderfully sane treatment of Jer 29:11, which—wonder of wonders!—can be applied sensibly to Christians living today!

Although serious Bible students are not wrong to insist on a methodic approach to Scripture, including a consideration of the historical context in which it was written, the Old Testament texts are given to us for our instruction today (2 Tim 3:16). How, we may wonder, should we balance a sound reading of the Bible with more immediate application?

Kou does a great job pushing back on a knee-jerk overreaction to the contextless misuse of Scripture, in favor of a contextually nuanced what-it-meant-back-then, that then translates into a robust how-it-ought-to-change-us-today sort of application. I commend this work for your consideration.

Check it out!

The Bible Is Not About You

By

Caroline Veronez (2020), public domain

We are self-centered by nature. This egotism can be amplified in certain cultures and by some personalities, but we all have a central impulse to focus on the person in the mirror.

So it is not surprising that when we turn to the Bible we think about ourselves first. Our spiritual disciplines can easily become a vehicle for self-improvement.

So what is a healthy way to approach reading the Bible? How should we pay attention to and process God’s word?

For a start, when reading the Bible, we should not immediately look for ourselves in the text. The Bible has implications for us, but the Bible is not about us.

The Bible is about God

If the Bible is not about us, then what is it about? Don’t take my word for it—search the Bible from beginning to end and you will see there is one primary actor and one main subject. The Bible is about God.

Note how the book begins.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

And when the book ends, we see the servants of this creator-king gathered around to worship.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. (Revelation 22:3)

God is infinite and eternal, so glorious and holy that humans could never know him without his self-revelation. And while God has revealed himself through his creation, he has shown himself in more detail and with precision in his word, the Bible.

Consider the way this displays God’s heart. He wants to be known! If you have access to a Bible, you are able to learn about this wonderful, powerful God. This is his desire!

The Bible is about Redemption

As we read the Bible, we learn who God is and what he is like. But we also learn about the place of humanity in the world and how we relate to God.

Adam and Eve turned against God early in the Scriptural story, disregarding his command and seeking their own way. God responded with judgment, mercy, and a promise. God’s judgment was the exile from Eden (Gen 3:22–24) and the curse—childbirth, the husband-wife relationship, and work in creation would all be painful and difficult (Gen 3:16–17). God’s mercy was that he continued to speak with the man and woman and that he covered their shame and nakedness (Gen 3:21). God’s promise was that there would be a child of Eve that would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).

The rest of the Bible unfolds these responses of God and the fulfillment of his promise, and everything points to Jesus (Luke 24:44–48). Jesus was the Son of God incarnate; he came to make God known (John 1:18), to redeem God’s people (Titus 2:14), and to bring them to God (1 Peter 3:18).

So, the Bible is about God, but it is also about how (and why) he is redeeming a people for himself.

Implications for Reading

If God and his redemptive purposes are at the core of the Bible, that should shape how we read.

First, we should be aware of the big picture as we read. When we study the Bible, we are seeking the author’s main point of each passage and how we should respond. But when we are reading for breadth, we don’t have time for such a narrow focus. It is better to think about the themes and arguments of the book we are reading and how they connect to the overall sweep of Scripture. Reading for breadth is primarily about familiarity and understanding, not application.

We should be sure to interpret before we apply the Bible. Some people are in such a rush to come away from their Bible reading with a “nugget” on which to meditate for the rest of the day that they skip crucial steps. All basic communication means that we must understand before we act. This may mean that you end up with no victory token from your devotions, no Instagram-worthy verse to quote and post. And that is fine!

Finally, we should think corporately, not individually. Especially in the global west we have a far more individual mindset than the first audiences of the Bible. God has set out to redeem a people for himself, the Church. This collective body is not the same as a group of random humans! So, while applying the Bible has clear implications for us as persons, those implications (often) flow out of truths and commands for the corporate people of God. (So many of the New Testament commands are for you (plural), not you (singular)!)

The beginning of another year brings many of us back to the Bible. As we turn to the Bible for the first or for the ten-thousandth time, let’s make sure we recognize our place. We are part of this grand story, but none of us are at the center. That would be far too small a story.

How to Make the Bible Come Alive

By

Markus Spiske (2016), public domain

If you lead a Bible study or teach the Bible in any capacity, and if you love God and his word, you want the Bible to come alive for your people. You want their hearts to catch fire as they read, listen, and engage.

The bad news is that we cannot do anything to make the Bible come alive. The good news is that we don’t need to make the Bible come alive, because the Bible is already living and active.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The best way for us to “make” the word of God come alive for our friends is to recognize and act like it is already living and active.

Active in You and Others

If the Bible is indeed active, then it will change us as we encounter it. In particular, as we prepare to lead Bible studies or teach the Bible, we should be different people because of the text we have been preparing!

The most powerful evidence of the truth of the Bible is often the leader’s own testimony of its transforming power. Like all Christians, we should be growing in our love for God, growing in our love for our neighbors, growing in the fruit of the Spirit. We should not put ourselves as the focus of our discussion, but we should plan to testify to the ways God has been at work in us.

Sharing will not look like victory upon victory. That’s not my experience of walking with God, and I don’t hear that from others. Rather, the Bible works in us in many ways—to teach, to reprove, to correct, and to train us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). Once we stop trying to be impressive, we can share about both the ways God is correcting us and the ways he is training us in righteousness.

Ideally this sort of discussion will help to create a culture within a Bible study group. Eventually, everyone will talk about the ways God’s word has been changing them.

What Do You Expect?

When we teach the Bible, our expectations influence our actions and interactions. Are we expecting people to be bored by the Bible or transformed by it?

Some leaders break out the bells and whistles. They think that if they jazz up the setting, or the presentation, or the activities, then people will really pay attention and get a lot out of the Bible study. However, this approach is doomed from the start. It presumes that the Bible is (at worst) boring or (at best) inert, and that what God really needs is a good carnival barker. If we expect people to be bored by the Bible, they will be.

A better approach is to recognize that the Scriptures are sharp and powerful. They may not affect every person the same way at the same time, but God’s word will accomplish what he wants (Is 55:10–11). If God’s word is at work within believers (1 Thess 2:13), then we should act as though that were true! This approach will affect the way we read the Bible out loud, how we ask questions, and how we pray for our friends.

The Living Word of God

How powerful is the Bible? To what degree is it living and active?

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; (1 Peter 1:22–23)

The word of God is living. It is abiding. It is an imperishable seed that brings new life to the dead. And it works mightily in God’s people.

We dare not act like it is boring or harmless. And we dare not presume that we can make that which is already living come alive.

Is it Legalistic to Apply the Bible?

By

Matt Cohen is writing about preaching, but his question applies just as much to leading Bible studies: “Is Sermon Application Legalism?”

Allow me to illustrate the potential error that I am referring to. Consider a pastor preaching from Ephesians 5:25, which reads, “Husbands, love your wives (imperative), as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (indicative).” The preacher elaborates,

“Husbands, God’s word calls you to love and lay down your life for your wife. Our failure to obey this command reveals our desperate need for our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the true and ultimate husband who laid down his life to save, protect, and provide for us, his bride, the church. All honor and glory to Jesus our Lord. Husbands, praise Him, the great husband of the church!”

What is wrong with the pastor’s exegesis of Ephesians 5:25?

Before clicking over to the article, can you identify what would be wrong with the proposed application of the hypothetical preacher? Why is that approach not the solution to the danger of legalism?

Check it out!

3 Ways We Weasel Out of Obedience

By

The chief question we ask when we apply the Bible is “how should I change?” (Please don’t ask “what does it mean to me?” as that gives people entirely the wrong idea.) Yet even when we pursue an answer to that chief question, it is not difficult to find ways to weasel out of obeying what God has said. Alan Shlemon lists three ways people tend to do just that:

  1. Claim personal divine revelation that supersedes Scripture. (“God told me to…”)
  2. Claim the Bible is corrupted and/or add other divine revelations. (“Other holy books get it right when they say…”)
  3. Pick and choose which parts of Scripture you’ll uphold. (“We know better today than they did back then…”)

Shlemon concludes:

Though it’s easy to see these erroneous approaches, we can’t be so naïve as to think we can’t also be blinded by the temptation to circumvent the Bible’s instruction. Jesus knew that following him would be difficult. He explained that if we want to be his disciples, we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him (Matt 16:24). None of those steps is easy. That, however, is what we’re called to do.

It would be much easier to dismiss divine commands, but in dismissing them, we dismiss him. He, however, is worthy of our trust. Let us be true to his word and his commands.

Shlemon’s brief piece is well worth your time. Check it out!

Ephesians: Uniting All Things in Christ, Part 2

By

The first half of Ephesians lays out God’s plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph 1:10). Paul’s doctrine of unity can be summarized in the shape of a capital “I” (in a font with bars across top and bottom). The top horizontal bar represents the unity God has with himself, among the persons of the Trinity. The vertical bar represents the unity between God and his people, brought about by grace through faith. The bottom horizontal bar represents the unity among God’s people that ought to result.

Having followed Paul’s argument in Ephesians 1-3 in the previous post, let’s now walk through Paul’s application of the doctrine of unity within the life of the church.

Photo by cottonbro

Diversity Shouldn’t Divide the Church

Paul transitions to application with the urging to walk in a manner worthy of the calling described in the first three chapters (Eph 4:1). And what exactly is a manner of life worthy of the call to unity, in light of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ? It requires humble, gentle, and patient forbearance toward fellow church members (Eph 4:2). Such character arises only from an eager commitment to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3).

Paul roots the unity of the church, explicitly, to the unity of the Trinity (Eph 4:4-6), which includes a victorious Christ ascending to take his throne while dishing out good gifts to his people. Psalm 68, quoted in Eph 4:8, likens the ascension of the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem to the arrival of God’s glory-cloud on Sinai. And Paul capitalizes on the image to explain how Jesus, the true ark, has entered heaven, the true sanctuary. This king cares enough about the unity of his body that he provides the church with leaders tasked with equipping members to serve one another—all so the community can grow together to maturity, according to the image of Jesus himself (Eph 4:9-14). That theological truth plays out in real life as people speak the truth to one another with love and build up one another in love (Eph 4:15-16).

In short, Eph 4:1-16 teaches that every church member is not required to be the same thing, do the same thing, or think the same thing. It assumes that there are differences among people, requiring patience and loving speech toward one another. In other words, diversity shouldn’t divide the church. But sadly, it often does, so the rest of the letter tells us what to do about that. We must give attention to four key areas, each marked with a renewed exhortation to walk (or, in the last case, to stand — Eph 4:17, 5:1, 5:15, 6:10-13).

Four Areas With Potential for Divisive Behaviors

The first area that requires attention in pursuit of unity is purity (Eph 4:17-32). However, notice that the chief problem of impurity is that it makes people like those who are alienated from—not unified with—God (Eph 4:18). The opposite of building up others in love is to serve oneself in sensuality and greed (Eph 4:19). This is not how you learned Christ! (Eph 4:20). A pure life according to the truth in Jesus requires each church member to do three things with their divisive behaviors:

  1. Put off the old self, with its divisive and selfish desires (Eph 4:22).
  2. Get a new way of thinking about how the calling to unity ought to drive your behavior (Eph 4:23).
  3. Put on the new self, which is like God—fully unified with himself and with his body (Eph 4:24).

Paul gives four case studies to show practically how the three-step change process works. The first (Eph 4:25) is about overcoming the divisive power of lies: put off falsehood, start thinking about yourself and other Christians as fellow members of one another, and put on the speaking of truth. The second: Put off sinful anger, recognize it as an opportunity for the devil to rip relationships apart, and put on godly indignation (Eph 4:26-27). Theft (Eph 4:28) and rotten speech (Eph 4:29) round out the case studies, along with a concluding summary of the process (Eph 4:30-32).

Second, Paul highlights the role of love in the pursuit of unity (Eph 5:1-14). He introduced the topic in Eph 4:15-16, but he expands on it in Eph 5:1-14. Such love draws its power and motivation from the love of Christ for his people (Eph 5:1-2). The challenging work of love requires an extensive putting off (Eph 5:3-4), mind renewal (Eph 5:5-6), and putting on (Eph 5:7-14). The walk of love is a walk that will occupy us for the rest of our lives, and will take every bit of attention we can give to it. Since the Lord Jesus gave himself for us, it is worth it to give all we have to develop love in this walk with one another.

Third, Paul turns to the need for wisdom in the application of unity (Eph 5:15-6:9). Wisdom catalyzes unity by recognizing the times (Eph 5:16), knowing God’s will (Eph 5:17), and seeking the Spirit’s filling (Eph 5:18). The marks of those filled with God’s unifying Spirit include Scripture-filled speech (Eph 4:19a), song-filled thought-lives (Eph 4:19b), thanksgiving-filled attitudes toward everything (Eph 4:20), and reverence-filled submission within hierarchical relationships (Eph 4:21).

Submission is both complex and so easy to get wrong; frequently, we obey the wrong authorities, and we rebel against the right authorities. All such behaviors are divisive within the body of Christ, so Paul expands on this demonstration of Spirit-filling (submission) by exploring three pairs of hierarchical human relationships: wives and husbands (Eph 5:22-33), children and fathers (Eph 6:1-4), and slaves and masters (Eph 6:5-9). In each pair, Paul showcases the vertical unity between believers and God as both model and motivation for the horizontal unity among human relationships.

The fourth and final area that requires particular attention when pursuing unity in the church is that of spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10-20). As I’ve written elsewhere, we are in great danger of getting this text wrong when we read it in isolation from the argument Paul has been making all through the letter. True and lasting unity is one of the most difficult tasks facing the church of Jesus Christ. Look around, and it’s not difficult to find abundant examples of the evil one’s flaming darts (Eph 6:16) leveraging the opportunity granted him by our sinful anger toward one another (Eph 4:26-27), seeking to retain his dominion as the great power of the air (Eph 2:2). God called Paul to proclaim the astounding unity of people from all nations who believe, right in the face of the spiritual authorities in the heavenly places (Eph 3:8-10). Because they’re not pleased with this plan, they do all they can to break up that unity. Therefore, our fight for unity is never against one another within the church. It is always against those spiritual forces seeking to turn us against one another (Eph 6:12). And we cannot win unless we are strengthened by the Lord (Eph 6:10) by means of taking up his own armor (Eph 6:14-20).

Closing Greeting

Paul closes the letter with a reminder of his desire for unity with the letter’s recipients. This desire has led him to send Tychicus as his agent to share all the news and encourage their hearts. Finally, Paul wishes for peace in the church and grace toward all who love the Lord Jesus.

Conclusion

Because the unified God has united believers to himself, the church ought now walk worthy of its calling by pursuing a full-orbed unity. This unity does not require uniformity, but it presumes a diversity of opinions, personalities, social roles, and people groups. Because diversity naturally produces friction, the church ought to give particular attention to humble and patient purity, love, wisdom, and spiritual warfare in its pursuit of unity. This is the sort of walk worthy of the calling of the one God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit.

Interpretive Outline

  1. Grace and peace to the saints – Eph 1:1-2
  2. Doctrine: The unity to which you’ve been called – Eph 1:3-3:21
    • Praise to a unified and unifying God – Eph 1:3-14
      • Prayer for eyes to see what that God is doing – Eph 1:15-23
        • The gift of grace that unifies people with God – Eph 2:1-10
          • The unity of the new humanity in the peace of Christ – Eph 2:11-22
        • The gift of grace that revealed and now preaches the unity of people with God and with each other – Eph 3:1-13
      • Prayer for supernatural strength to comprehend such divine, unifying love – Eph 3:14-19
    • Praise to an astonishing God who empowers unity in ways we could never imagine – Eph 3:20-21
  3. Application: Walk in a manner worthy of this calling to unity – Eph 4:1-6:20
    • Diversity shouldn’t divide – Eph 4:1-16
    • Areas to address when diversity threatens to divide – Eph 4:17-6:20
      1. Purity – Eph 4:17-32
      2. Love – Eph 5:1-13
      3. Wisdom – Eph 5:14-6:9
      4. Spiritual warfare – Eph 6:10-20
  4. Final greeting of peace, love, and grace – Eph 6:21-24

This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.

How to Apply the Bible’s Narratives

By

For a religious book, is it not surprising that the Bible contains way more narrative than instructional material? What are we supposed to do with all those stories? What is their connection to our lives?

Some might say we shouldn’t apply Bible stories; they are only for telling what happened and not what ought to happen. But that doesn’t do full justice to the way the Scriptures themselves make use of the stories (1 Cor 10:6, 1 Jn 3:12, 1 Pet 2:21, etc.).

Christy Gambrell has a helpful piece where she begins to explain how to connect these stories to our lives.

It helps to understand what a narrative is. Narratives are not morality tales, but real stories about real people making real decisions. As such, they’re not necessarily intended to prescribe a pattern for our actions. But they are written for our instruction, showing us truth and helping us live in response to it.

I would not make such a sharp polarization between “prescribe a pattern” and “helping us live in response to” the truth. But Gambrell is helpful in showing that we ought not make a thoughtless, immediate example or non-example out of every Bible character. Reflection must take place to recognize how the narrator makes use of the character, so we might properly appropriate the message in our day.

Gambrell gives two very helpful tactics: respect the narrative genre, and look to what the rest of Scripture says about those characters. I would add another crucial tool: Observe the plot structure to find the main point (somewhere around the climax or resolution. Then seek to apply that main point and not merely the incidental character details along the way.

Gambrell offers much help to get the process started.

Check it out!