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More Than Doing

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How do you know when you’ve successfully applied the Bible to your life?

Of course, obedience is a life-long practice, which we’ll never be finished with. But when you are studying a passage of Scripture, how do you know when you have arrived at appropriate application? At what point can you say you’ve done enough study? You now know what you must go and do, and you’re ready to go and do it.

I think it depends on your definition of “doing.”

Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash

The Definition of “Doing”

In my experience leading Bible studies, one of the most common conceptions I find people have is that application = doing. As in, until you have something concrete and particular to add to your schedule or task list, you haven’t yet done application. And if a teacher doesn’t give you specific actions for your schedule or task list, that teacher hasn’t yet helped you with application.

So I find it crucial to remind people that application involves more than doing. Yes, the Bible often calls us to do something. But sometimes it calls us believe something. And sometimes it calls us to love or value something. All such calls could be properly labeled “application.”

To put it another way, application is not only about the hands but also about the head and the heart. All three spheres can be considered legitimate ways to apply the Scripture. One of them (hands) involves doing. But that’s not the only thing application involves.

Examples

We cannot improve on the sorts of applications the apostles themselves sought from their readers.

Of course, the apostles sometimes proposed hands (doing) applications:

Outdo one another in showing honor … contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Romans 12:10-13

Yet sometimes, the primary application they’re after is head application:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

1 Cor 3:16-18

And yet other times, they go for the heart. They want Christians to become people of character who receive and rest upon Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but 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 20:30-31

Have At It

Of course, doing is one of the spheres, so I would never encourage you not to get applications on your schedule or task list.

But if a particular text lends itself more to believing or loving, have at it. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t conclude that you haven’t yet “applied” the Scripture.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

1 Thess 1:2-5

No Need to Push; Just Blow

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The climax of interpretation is to determine the author’s main point. And while there’s rarely a single, “correct” way to word the main point, some ways of phrasing it are more helpful than others.

Arrive at the Cliff’s Edge

As the climax of interpretation, the main point is the final rest stop before entering the territory of application. Your statement of the author’s main point represents the sum total of all your work to that point. The main point answers your most important why questions. And your main point ought to be 40-weeks-and-two-days pregnant with the answers to your most important so what questions.

As you craft your statement of the author’s main point, avoid the temptation to include everything the passage says. Your goal is not to include every thing but only to capture the main thing.

And the way you capture that main thing matters. Think of observation and interpretation as a high plateau covered in a dense forest. You’ve examined the trees, but you’ve grasped the way they fit together into that forest.

But at the edge of that forest is a cliff, dropping off into a vast canyon. That canyon represents application. And the closer your main point gets to that cliff’s edge, the better it is—both for yourself and those you lead in Bible study. Aim to get close enough to the cliff’s edge that you won’t need to push yourself or others too hard to get into application. All you have to do is blow, and you’ll all fall right into it.

In other words, your main point is the Roadrunner. Your goal in crafting a main point is to get that Wile E. Coyote (be he yourself or those you lead) out of the forest and up to the edge of the cliff. Even better, get him six feet out beyond the cliff’s edge. Once he realizes he’s there, all he needs to do is fall.

What This Looks Like

Your main point should be a clear, concise, and compelling statement of the truth of the text. You don’t want it to be obscure, such that nobody knows what it means. You don’t want it to be lengthy, such that nobody can hold it in mind. You don’t want it to be dry and dusty, such that nobody knows what to do with it.

You’re not inventing the idea; you’re only phrasing it in a compelling way. So your main point should clearly capture the truth of the text while also clearly implying a variety of applications.

For example, I could state the main point of Eph 4:1-16 as follows: “As a church, we must walk in the sort of unity worthy of God’s calling on us in Christ.” That would be true and accurate, scoring bonus points for using the very language of the passage. However, I can take the same truth and rephrase it in a more compelling way, getting myself and my people right up over the canyon of application: “Diversity shouldn’t divide the church.” Once I put it that way, I raise all kinds of questions about our church and what sorts of things we permit to divide us.

Let’s take Proverbs 30:1-6 for another example. I could state the main point as: “God’s Son and his Word communicate his truth and wisdom to us, providing refuge to the weary.” Or I could state it as: “You can find heaven’s wisdom on earth.” If we had more time to discuss it, I’m sure we could improve it even further.

One more example, from a narrative: 1 Kings 21. We could phrase the main point as: “God’s people were expelled like Amorites because their kings abused power and refused justice like Amorites.” That statement captures what this narrative gets at, especially regarding how it would have landed with the original audience. But perhaps another way to phrase the same truth for a modern audience (even if that “audience” is only myself) is: “Sellouts will be found out.”

No Need to Push; Just Blow

In each case, do you see how my rephrasing of the main point hangs us out right over the canyon of application? I won’t need to push myself or others into application. All I have to do is show how deep the canyon goes. And we’ll fall right in.

Each rephrased main point raises immediate questions about our current situation, need, or status. It begs us to ask more implicational questions. And it drives us toward proper belief, values, or action in service to Christ.

Next time you work on a passage, give yourself some time to think long and hard about the main point. Not only what it is but how to phrase it. See how far you can get yourself off the cliff of interpretation and out over the canyon of application. Of course, without actually turning the main point into any particular application. This takes quite a bit of thought, but the effort is extraordinarily rewarding. Your future self—entrusted with the business of applying this text to life—will thank you.

The Tightrope of Bible Application

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For a few months I’ve been writing on the importance and the process of determining the author’s main point in Bible study. And one reason we should care about the main point is because of how dramatically it affects the way we apply the Bible.

To explain this further, I recently wrote for the Logos blog a piece called “Legalism, License, and the Tightrope of Bible Application.” Here is a taste:

So you want to apply the Bible to your life, do you?

That’s wonderful news, since the Lord Jesus (Matt 7:21–27) and his apostles (Jas 1:22–25) want you and me not only to hear the word but also to do it. But what should that “doing” look like?

Sometimes people warn of the danger of creating behavioral rules to either attain or maintain God’s favor. And at other times, people warn of cheap grace, where the gospel’s freedom is misunderstood to mean repentance is unnecessary. The tug-of-war between these perspectives may cause Bible application to feel like crossing a lava pit on a tightrope.

Both sets of warnings are on to something; the dangers on either side are real. And both sets of dangers may have the same solution: holding fast to the main points of biblical texts.

In the piece, I show how holding fast to the author’s main points provide a safeguard against drifting into either legalism or license in our application of Scripture. I’d love to know if you find my case persuasive.

Check it out!

How Would They Have Applied It?

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In recent posts, I’ve been trying to help you get the most out of the interpretation phase of your study. We’ve considered different uses for different types of questions, the power of implicational questions, and the best place to find answers to your questions.

Another Angle

Another way to think of the value of implicational questions is that they help us to grasp how the original audience would have applied the text. When we ask our questions with the original audience in mind, we’re more likely to land on the true message and proper application of the text.

Our understanding of a text will be strongest—and therefore our application will hit home with greatest force—when it is very closely connected to the author’s primary intent for his audience.

So we do as much as we can to put ourselves in the shoes of those who first read this text, and to consider what this passage calls them to believe, love, or do.

Photo by Allan Mas

To do this, we must pull together all of our work in observation and interpretation so far. All our questions and answers, along with our work on the context: historical, biblical, and literary.

An Example

In Proverbs 31:1-9, King Lemuel’s mother offers him wise counsel for kings and rulers. She tells him what not to do with his strength (Prov 31:3) and mouth (Prov 31:4-5), and she promotes what he ought to do with his mouth (Prov 31:8-9a) and strength (Prov 31:9b). There is a time an place for forgetting (Prov 31:6-7), but during one’s exercise of kingly rule is not it (Prov 31:4-5).

Thus far my observation, with some progress on definitive, rational, and implicational questions. But how would the original audience have applied this poem?

It may be tempting to go directly to contemporary application, considering how we make use of our own strength and mouth, and whether we employ them to wise, selfless, and just ends. Such time would certainly be profitable, but perhaps a less direct route will lay an even stronger foundation for application.

The book of Proverbs is something of a manual for training up nobles and rulers in Israel. When Solomon speaks to “my son” in chapters 1-9, he is speaking not only to his direct heir but also to all the youth among the nobility (see where Prov 4:1, 24:21, etc., where the “sons” are either plural or are not in direct line to the throne). So if we apply every passage directly to the Christian “everyman,” we lose something of the book’s focus on training leaders.

The people of Israel hearing Proverbs 31:1-9 may not have immediately considered how they used their own strength or mouth. After all, many of them would be in the category of those for whom it would be appropriate to forget their poverty (Prov 31:6-7)!

Instead, upon hearing this text, they would be far more inclined to consider what sort of king they need to rule them in wisdom. They might expect their king to take this poem more personally than they themselves do. And if he wouldn’t, they would keep waiting and watching for another such king to arise.

Such consideration of the original audience helps us to see Christ more clearly in the text. And since we have been united to him through faith, it remains appropriate to apply the text to us today. But having gone through Christ to get to application, we’ve ratcheted up the urgency and persuasiveness.

One Caution

In order to determine a text’s implications on the original audience, we must be able to identify who that original audience is. Such identification is quite tricky for narratives, for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that we often don’t know who the precise audience was. It would be difficult to nail down exactly which generation was the first audience for Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, or Esther. We can’t be too precise about the audience for some of the gospels, as we’re not told. In all such cases, we must remain fuzzy, though it still helps to know “these people needed a king,” or “these people must have been Jewish Christians.”

The second reason the identification is tricky is that we often confuse the text’s audience with the text’s characters. So when studying the sermon on the Mount, we might find ourselves putting ourselves in the shoes of those who were present, listening to the sermon as Jesus preached it. But instead, we ought to put ourselves in the shoes of those reading the book that Matthew wrote.

So the implications of the text on the characters within the text might help you to understand the text. But what’s even more significant is to grasp the implications of the text on those who first read the text.

Conclusion

When you can clearly answer the question of “how would they have applied it?” you’ll be far more likely to get a strong answer to “how should we apply it?”

Dangerous Approaches to Application

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Here is a thoughtful piece by Ty Kieser called “Potential Dangers of ‘Applying Scripture to My Life’.” In it, Kieser explores three faulty assumptions that can make the practice of application go very wrong.

  1. I should start with me and my questions.
  2. The Bible is (primarily) a collection of principles.
  3. The goal of reading the Bible is improving my life.

Kieser makes some excellent points that ought to be considered. It is for many of the same reasons that I generally avoid the question of “How do I apply the Bible to my life?” and frame application more as “How does the text instruct me to change?”

I might quibble with a little of Kieser’s rhetoric. At times it sounds like he believes we shouldn’t change personally but only get swept up in the Lord’s story. But by the end, he clearly wishes change for God’s people as they draw closer in relationship to him. But that really is but a quibble, as I would heartily cheer the sort of application he wishes for more of.

Check it out!

Proclaiming the Gospel from Old Testament Narrative

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Some friends of mine recently pointed me to this article from Steve Mathewson on preaching the gospel from Judges. Mathewson wrestled through an old debate about whether we ought to teach OT narratives as foreshadowings of Christ or as examples to follow or avoid. And in the end, Mathewson cogently demonstrates that we shouldn’t have to decide between those options.

After wrestling through a philosophical framework for reading the OT, Mathewson gives a few examples from texts about Ehud and Barak.

I agree with many of Mathewson’s conclusions. One thing I would add to his reflection is that, before we even attempt to connect the text to Christ or to application, we must first grasp the author’s main point for the original audience. Mathewson essentially does this in his examples, but he doesn’t state outright that he is doing so. But much trouble would be resolved if didn’t race immediately from the text to the cross, or from the text to today. Taking the time to consider the full meaning for the original audience is the very practice that will enable us to grasp its teaching about Christ and its true implications for people today.

And though Mathewson frames his article around preaching, his framework applies just as much to personal or small group Bible study.

Check it out!

HT: Mark Fodale, Andy Cimbala

Applying the Old Testament in Africa

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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

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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

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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?

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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!