Issue 903 – Perspective – November 7, 2022
A side note from yesterday’s Gleanings, Kathy reminded me that the image of the Old Couple Reading was taken at the Log Barn in Armstrong, BC.
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Acts 17:10-12
From this point of view, the seed heads on these grasses look huge compared to the mountain in the background. The truth, of course, is that there is absolutely no comparison; the grasses are infinitesimally small compared to the mountain or even the trees on the mountain.
Perspective matters. We all have a perspective lens through which we view the world, which colours our understanding of Scripture. A twenty-first-century North American man will not look at things in the Bible like a first-century Jewish woman.
That is one of the reasons that the common Bible study question of “What does this verse mean to you? is so dangerous. It ranks right up there with jumping immediately to the application without considering the context of the verse.
God fully inspires the Bible. It is God-breathed and is designed to reveal God and His plan to every generation and every culture at every time.
A crucial part of Bible study is considering what the original author intended for his audience to hear and what they would have understood the message. The Bible was written for us, not to us, so we need to be sure we know it means what it was meant to say.
Fortunately for us, a great deal of information is readily available to help us understand the context of the Scriptures.
Theology is best done in community. I don’t mean that we go with the flow and let someone else do our thinking for us. I strongly advocate for EVERY Christian reading the Scriptures daily and studying them in depth. We must consider our thoughts and findings in comparison to the larger historical Christian community.
Every heresy has roots in someone discovering a “new” or “hidden” message in the Scriptures that the church has overlooked for the past 2,000 years. There may be differences in application in different circumstances, but the Bible does not mean what it was never intended to mean.
I have had people tell me that their understanding of a single verse means that the church has misunderstood who Jesus was throughout the Scripture or that based on their reading of a passage, the church has misunderstood the grounds of salvation. That can be some scary stuff.
The critical component of our study must be to study the Scriptures themselves, comparing Scripture to Scripture. Then we have a wide range of creeds, commentaries, lexicons, dictionaries, maps and more to help us understand what we have read. None are inspired in the sense that Scripture is, and none are without error.
Yet, we would be remiss in dismissing what the Spirit has been doing through godly men and women who have devoted their lives to studying the Word.
We are finite beings attempting to understand the infinite, so we will never understand fully. Yet God has communicated His truth to us, expecting us to understand enough to see who He is, who we are and our need for Him.
We need the Word, and knowing our perspectives can sometimes lead us astray and compare what we have learned to the study of others.
Bible study – time well spent.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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