1, 12 April 2024

During this period, when meditating on the meaning of the crucifixion, the resurrection and ascension, certain refreshing thoughts and appreciation come through to me, by God’s grace. The study of the Gospel of Luke is also contributory in this respect.

The main thought has to do with humble handling of God’s Word – whether in preaching, teaching, sharing and learning.
We must not add to Scripture according to our own speculation or subtract from Scripture according to our preferences.
This may happen because of our own desire for ‘originality’ and our unwillingness to take Scripture as it is; we then try to freshen our communication or improve it with our own ‘bright ideas’.

Of course, we need to be ‘original’ in the sense that we take old truths and seek creatively to restate them in modern terms and apply them to modern conditions and contexts; this does not mean we have the freedom to invent new and unbiblical ideas and reinterpret the text with the authority that rightly and only belongs to the Word of God.

In the gospels, we see that adding to God’s Word was the fault of the Pharisees, and subtracting from it is the fault of the Sadducees. Jesus criticised them both, insisting that the Word of God must be allowed to stand by itself, without plus or minus, without amplification or modification, supreme and sufficient in its authority.

Unfortunately, there are modern Pharisees and Sadducees today, who tamper with Scripture, discarding what they wish was not there and inserting what they wish was. Such ones should heed the criticisms of Jesus, and realise the seriousness of such deeds, and the judgements that would follow from God.

Previously, I have shared that Christians should understand God in a trinitarian way. This becomes more obvious when we appreciate God’s salvation plan, instituted even before the creation of the world. The Triune God decided to save fallen humanity by sending the Son to die as our substitute and to bring us back to Him – hence the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We are now living in an age when the kingdom of God has been inaugurated – the kingdom is already here in the Person of Jesus and the kingdom will be consummated when Jesus comes again.
In the meanwhile, the Spirit unites us (believers) with Christ, and our ministry is in fact the ministry of the risen ascended Christ through us by the Spirit of God.

All of us who are Christians preachers, teachers, whether in the church context, or in our families, among our colleagues, are finite, fallen, frail and fallible creatures, in biblical language, “pots of earthenware” or “jars of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7). The power belongs to Christ and is exerted through his Spirit. The words we speak in human weakness the Holy Spirit carries home by his power to the mind, heart, conscience and will of the hearers.

A humble mind (being submissive to the Written Word of God), a humble ambition,(desiring an encounter to take place between Christ and his people), and a humble dependence (relying on the power of the Holy Spirit) – this is the messenger’s humility needed.
Our message must be God’s Word, not ours, our aim Christ’s glory, not ours, and our confidence the Holy Spirit’s power, not ours. It is in fact, a Trinitarian humility as in 1 Cor. 2:1-5.

The one who shares the Word of God must stand behind it, and ‘hide’ behind the cross of the Lord Jesus; he should not stand in front of God’s Word and the cross, for ultimately, it is not he who speaks but it is God who speaks and we are to listen with awe and with our hearts stirred and our minds engrossed.

(TWO INTERPRETING PRINCIPLES)

I recall when I first became a Christian in 1968, I was told it is important to read and study the Bible. Bible study then for me was just looking at questions in a study booklet and answering the questions in simple sentences.
When I finished reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I was thrilled and I told various brethren that I have finished reading the whole Bible; to my surprise and consternation, I was told that it is “not so much how many times you have gone through the Bible but how many times the Bible has gone through you”.
I must confess that I truly find this to be true – there is so much in the Bible in terms of content, the width, breadth and depth of it; and there is so much I need to learn from the Almighty God who speaks, corrects, and enables me to grow to know him and to be like his Son.

Over the years though, I learned that there are two essential interpreting principles when it comes to reading, studying, understanding, and applying the Bible in one’s life and departing from them can cause ‘damage’ to our Christian life, and even irreparable consequences to our spiritual life.

The first principle is that the proper, natural sense of each passage (i.e. the intended sense of the writer) is to be taken as fundamental; the meaning of texts in their contexts, and for their original readers, is the necessary starting point for enquiry into their wider significance. Too often. we straightaway ‘jump’ to applications for ourselves in our current situation, and these can differ so greatly from the original intended sense of the writer. The application hence is not from the actual meaning of the text; we can then be guilty of action and decision not intended for us from the Lord God from that particular passage.
The obvious negative example is when someone is downcast and dejected, and comes across the sentence in the BIble: ‘And Judas hanged himself” and feels that this is the action he has to take for himself.
Scripture statements must be interpreted in the light of the rules of grammar and discourse on the one hand, and of their own place in history on the other. Note that the biblical books originated as occasional documents addressed to contemporary audiences, and it is exemplified in the New Testament exposition of the Old. We must allow Scripture to tell us its own literary character, and be willing to receive it as what it claims to be.

The second principle of interpretation is that Scripture must interpret Scripture; the scope and significance of one passage is to be brought out by relating it to others. The Westminster Confession states it thus: “When there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.”
This means we must give ourselves in Bible study to following out the unities, cross-references, and topical links which Scripture provides. God’s revealed truth is a consistent unity, and any disharmony between part and part is only apparent, not real.

In case we think that the two interpreting principles only apply in Bible reading and Bible study, they also apply in preparation and delivery of sermons and teaching as well. In fact, disregard for these principles by teachers, pastors, and preachers has been the cause of major wrong theological conclusions and even heresies in the history of the church. The fact that the Bible is quoted does not mean that it has been properly and rightly interpreted; the Spirit of God, who is the author of Scripture, is the one ultimately who teaches and imparts life to those who receive the meaning of the texts, and also the one who enables those who receive to apply them, in obedience to God, in their lives.