Throttling back

So last week I threw out the idea that believing what Jesus believed is something much more complicated than simply listing certain things He believed. It encompasses our study and interpretation of the Bible. Our goal in studying and interpreting the Bible is to first establish what the original author intended to communicate and then to bring that into a principle for current-day life. I want to throttle back this week and spend some time discussing how we study the Bible.

Last week I mentioned inductive and deductive Bible study and how both are necessary. In my opinion, the best way to combine these two ways of study is first to do the inductive study, examining the text alone and finding out as much as we can about it through prayer and insight. Then, after we have picked the text apart, we can refer to reference materials (commentaries, dictionaries, word-study tools, etc.) in order to compare our conclusions with those of others. Hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) is best done with others, but we can't just take someone else's word for it. (FYI: The term hermeneutics comes from the messenger of the Greek gods, Hermes. He would bring the people a message from their gods, and they had to figure out what the message meant. So we call principles of how to interpret the Bible "hermeneutics.")

The main ingredient of inductive Bible study (apart from the Holy Spirit) is context. Context is a lot like Google Maps. :) When you view a map, you can zoom in or zoom out to see where your location is. If you zoom way in, all you see is the street. If you zoom out a little bit, you can see the block or neighborhood, giving you more of an idea of where you are looking. Zoom out farther, and you can see highways, cities, etc. Context is necessary for an understanding of what the author was saying. We start by examining the words in a sentence, then zoom out to see what the paragraph says, then we zoom out further to see what that book of the Bible says, and even go so far as to see what the rest of the Bible says (especially with a book like Revelation that has over 500 Old Testament allusions). This is called the literary context. But why is literary context so important?

Moises Silva puts it this way: "context does not merely help us understand meaning; it virtually makes meaning." For example, let's look at Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." We have all used this verse before, usually to make ourselves feel better at a poorly attended gathering. Now at first glance, this seems like a straight-forward promise; however, read in context of Matthew 18:15-20, the meaning becomes apparent. Jesus is pointing out an Old Testament principle about matters being established by two or three witnesses in order to bring a brother to a conviction about a sin. If your brother rejects correction in front of two or three witnesses, and even the church, in essence, he is rejecting God as well!! (By the way, many call this a passage about "church discipline," but I really don't think that was what Jesus had in mind. I am pretty sure Jesus desires for us to win our brother over...just my opinion based on the context.)

Everything we study in the Bible is made up of words. We need to see how they relate to each other and what they are communicating, which is a great reason to throttle back when you are reading. And Remember! Context, context, context!! I cannot stress this enough. We have all pulled verses out of context to prove something before, but as we study, we need to be ever-so-observant of the literary context. We will mention the situational, or historical-cultural context next week, but for now, let's mull over and discuss a couple of things:

• How important is it for us to have read all the way through the Bible in order to grasp a passage's context within the entire Bible?
• Is it rude or insensitive to point out to someone when they are taking a passage out of context? Why or why not?
• (Cautiously I ask this) Should our theology be influenced by interpreting the Bible, or should our interpretation of the Bible be based on our theology? How do our interpretation and our theology both influence our discipleship?
  
• What other thoughts or questions do you have?

First Steps: Falling is Natural

Before digging into some new thoughts, I figured some quick thoughts on the questions from the last post would be good. Why are we (Christians) being formed into the image of Christ? Theologically, I would point to Ephesians 1:9-10. God is restructuring the universe, bringing all things under the authority of Jesus. The universe was thrown into chaos when Adam and Eve sinned; His will is to reorder things to the way He intended it to be. Practically, we are being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of other people. If it was for our benefit, it would be pretty selfish, wouldn't it? Jesus was selfless, so becoming more like him means becoming others-oriented in order to bring them along in God's cosmic restoration!

Obviously, our knowledge and understanding of the Bible affects the way we follow Jesus because it determines our knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is. To me, that right there is the reason studying the Bible is so important. If you don't see Jesus for who he really is, it makes it pretty difficult to truly follow Jesus. Let's face it, the Bible is God's Word, and it is the main source of His revelation to us. We need to know and understand it!

So, on to some new thoughts. When we take our first steps as a baby, it is a certainty that we are going to fall down several times before we become efficient at it. Some of us fall more than others, and some of us are still trying to figure out how to walk, but what I am trying to get across is that as we begin walking as a disciple and as a student of the Bible, we are going to make mistakes over and over. So why am I even pointing this out. Most of you are leaders, right? Well, I may be going somewhere I don't need to go, but if we move on to the deeper, harder discussions, and we don't all have the same foundation, it's going to be hard to communicate with each other, which might cause debate, dissension, and NOT edification. So be patient with me as I attempt to lay a solid foundation for us all to build on.

So last week I mentioned the six areas of transformation that Bill Hull discusses in a couple of his books. The first of those six is a transformed mind: believing what Jesus believed. Many of us are well on our way with this area, but it is not something that anyone can ever say they have arrived at. It is something we will continue to learn and be transformed in for the rest of our lives. But what does it mean to have a transformed mind? Better yet, how do we begin to believe what Jesus believed? The irony of that question is that it has everything to do with how we study and interpret the Bible. Unfortunately, we can not answer that question in one post. But what we can do is begin to discuss the process for studying and interpreting the Bible, with the goal of believing what Jesus believed!

A goal of studying the Bible is to figure out what the original author intended to communicate in order to "translate" that principle into a meaningful, life-changing principle for our lives today. There are two main methods of studying the Bible: deductive and inductive. Many people have argued over which method is the best, and I propose that both are necessary! Deductive Bible study relies on sources such as commentaries, word studies, histories, and even study Bibles to help gain insight into a text's meaning. Inductive Bible study scraps everything but the text, our mind, and the Holy Spirit. Why would I suggest that both methods are so important, and how can we combine them in a way that helps us to really understand what the original author meant? What do you think?

Before concluding, I want to give some very basic basics. The Bible is a compilation of written documents. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write these various books, poems, and letters to communicate truth and reveal God to us. In the flow of communication, we have a speaker (the people who wrote the books, inspired by the Holy Spirit), an audience (us), and a medium (the Bible, a written medium of communication). Unfortunately, we live a long time after those who wrote the Bible, and in a completely different culture than we live in. That creates a HUGE disconnect, making it very difficult for us to be able to capture the author's intended meaning. However, we have one HUGE thing on our side. The Holy Spirit that inspired the authors to write what they did also resides inside of us. Therefore, with His help, we CAN grasp the intended meaning AND translate that into principles for living today!!

What thoughts and or questions does this all spark with you? Any light bulbs going off or is your head beginning to fog up?

A Starting Point

As I posted at the end of November, my passions are discipleship and hermeneutics. I suppose a goal I have is to incorporate those two concepts into each post. So today I want to set forth some goals. We are starting a conversation, and when you start a conversation (or anything for that matter) it is best to start out with some goal or goals in mind. Sometimes the goal is to find something out, sometimes the goal is to come to a resolution, and sometimes the goal is to achieve something. Whatever the case may be, if you start down a path without goals, chances are you won't accomplish much.

In two of his books (The Complete Book of Discipleship and Choose the Life) Bill Hull explains that the chief goal of the disciple's life is transformation. Specifically, he lists out six specific areas of transformation that each of us should have as our goals. In this order, he says we should set the goal to achieve:

1. A transformed mind: believing what Jesus believed;
2. A transformed character: living the way Jesus lived;
3. Transformed relationships: loving the way Jesus loved;
4. Transformed habits: training the way Jesus trained;
5. Transformed service: ministering the way Jesus ministered; and
6. Transformed influence: leading the way Jesus lived

[Note: In Choose the Life, Hull does not include #4: transformed habits]. So these are the specific ways we should seek to live out the goal of transformation. It sounds like a lot, but there is a reason Hull mentions them in this order. As in most numbered lists, you start with # 1 and work your way to the the final number. So, if we start with a transformed mind, or believing what Jesus believed, perhaps it is best to figure out what Jesus believed (Genius! I know, you don't have to tell me). However, we will save that for another post.

Before we really get to a place where we dig into what Jesus believed, it may be best to take a minute and lay out the reasoning behind hermeneutics (principles of interpreting the Bible) and why we should even spend the effort to pursue such a thing. So often we open up our Bibles and take the chance that somehow we will have a revelation from God about what it means. By no means am I saying we should not simply open up our Bibles and read them, but let's be honest; if we all did that, and we all came to different conclusions, then we are all making Jesus out to be someone different. I am not saying that we are each making up our own Jesus, but it has that potential. So we spend the effort to consider what the original author intended to communicate in order to help us understand what Jesus believed, how he lived, how he loved, how he trained, how he ministered, and how he led. Then we can translate it into our lives and be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus.

One caveat to the whole practice of interpreting the Bible: it is a lot like theology. Theology is more of a discussion or dialogue than it is a conclusive science. We should always seek to pursue theology with much humility and not much testosterone. In the same way, the way we interpret the Bible should always be an ongoing conversation with others. There are certain points being made everyday that challenge what many scholars have previously concluded. So as we begin the dialogue about being transformed and learning how to interpret the Bible, let's all keep our minds and hearts open to each other, the Holy Spirit, the Word, and the God we seek to know better through their leading.

So here we go with some food for thought. I would love for us to discuss some of the points I have made, so here are some questions to talk about.

• We want to become like Jesus. Paul says Christ will be formed in us (Galatians 4:19). Why are we being formed into the image of Jesus? Why is that our heart's desire, to what end?
• Also, how does our knowledge and understanding of the Bible affect how we follow Jesus?
• Why is it so important to study the Bible? What do you think?
• What thoughts or questions do you have after reading all of this?

I look forward to some good discussion about this!