What Do You Think This Says?

Have you ever been in a situation like this: a group of Christians get together for a Bible study.  A passage is chosen somewhere in the New Testament.  Someone in the group steps into the role of leader (usually the one who likes to talk).  The leader prays and gets the study going.  Every person turns to the passage and it is read aloud.  Then the leader asks: "What do you think this says?  What does this passage mean to you?"

Unfortunately, this is an all-too familiar scenario.  Many of us have experienced more of these sorts of Bible studies than any other, where the focus is on what the Bible is saying to me personally.  In this way, the Bible is seen as something that needs to be applied to the individual.  The interpretive method of this kind would say that interpretation is 'up for grabs' in the sense that it is only as relevant as my imaginative interpretations can make.

This methodology, however clever the interpretations it garners may be, betrays two fundamental truths about Scripture.

In the first place, all Scripture is about God.  Let me say this again: Scripture is not about what we can get out of it; it is about Christ Jesus.  This means that any time we read ourselves into Scripture we are, in fact, not meeting Scripture on Scripture's terms.  We are trying to make Scripture fit our terms.  This, clearly, is not biblical.  The Bible interprets itself and changes us, we should not try to change it to get it to interpret us.

Secondly, the Bible is a message from God.  It is self-revelation to mankind.  It is redemptive, meaning that it serves the purposes that God has laid out.  This means, fundamentally, that the Bible meets humans from God's perspective with God's thoughts, and it is our duty, as interpreters, to think those thoughts and to see that perspective.  The Bible is not about what we see it is about what God has put there for us to see.

Quickly, it can be seen that interpreting the Word of God is no small activity and it demands no small amount of effort.  Striving to garner the most accurate interpretation is not about trying to make every verse fit our lives personally wherever we are; it is about trying our best to understand why God has put this verse there at that point in history, written that way, for that purpose as it relates to Christ Jesus.  This is how Scripture works and we need to meet it on its own terms.