4 Reasons the Bible Is Hard to Read and None Are You

Sermon outline

A gulf of language, culture, geography and history lies between the Bible's writers and us, and we bridge it by research, by approaching Scripture in four steps, and by following sound rules of interpretation with the Bible as our final authority and the Holy Spirit as our teacher.

1. Four problems: the gulf between the writers and us

   God spoke through human writers in their own world, surroundings and language, and that leaves the Bible student with four problems: the original languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic; the writers' very different cultural context; a geography foreign to most readers today; and a different historical context. Research builds the bridge across that gulf, which is why it helps to read several versions. Disagreements about the Bible reflect limited human understanding, not a fault in the Bible.

   Illustration: He shows the course book's diagram: the Holy Spirit inspiring the writers on one side, Bible students on the other, and the gulf of language, culture, geography and history between them.

   “The Bible is always correct. Limited human understanding is what causes differences of opinions.”

2. Basic principles of interpretation

   Come to the Bible with an open mind and an open spirit, trusting it as authoritative rather than reading it with suspicion. The Bible contains its own laws of interpretation: Scripture interprets Scripture. The Old Testament is the prophecy and the New Testament its fulfilment, so those who say the Old Testament is no longer valid have no ground to stand on. The aim is to discover what God meant, not a twisted meaning.

   “No human understanding can be used to interpret scripture, but scripture can interpret scripture.”

3. Four steps: observation, interpretation, correlation, application

   Observe like a detective: no detail is unimportant and no stone left unturned, and write every observation in your notebook. Interpret by asking what it meant to the people who first heard it, in context, rather than borrowing a verse to justify an agenda. Correlate it with everything else the Bible says on the subject, because one truth must not be expounded over another. Then apply it: what does it mean to me?

   Illustration: Psalm 91 is his favourite scripture, but he can only tell you what it means to him; you have to establish it for yourself. Correlation is like eating the meat and then examining the bones and the marrow.

   “Approach a word of God like a detective. No detail is unimportant, no stone should be left unturned.”

   • Ecclesiastes 1:9
   • Psalm 91

4. Rule one: the Bible is the final authority

   Every Christian submits, consciously or not, to one of three final authorities: tradition, human reasoning or Scripture. A true Christian makes the Bible his final court of appeal. Some instructions were for specific people, such as Noah's ark or Samson's uncut hair, and are not ours to copy. Modern reinterpretations on matters like divorce often cover up disobedience and come from an unwillingness to submit to the Bible.

   Illustration: Read on its own, Jesus' rebuke in John 5 can sound like judgement on you; asking who He was speaking to, when and in what situation gives the real meaning.

   “A true Christian must have the Bible as his final court of appeal.”

   • John 5:39-42
   • 2 Timothy 3:15-17
   • Judges 13:5

5. Rules two and three: Scripture explains Scripture, and the Spirit gives understanding

   Let the Bible speak, neither adding nor taking away. Isaiah's prophecy of the virgin, where the Hebrew can mean virgin or young woman, is settled when Matthew quotes it with a Greek word that only means virgin. And faith and the Holy Spirit are needed to understand Scripture: the natural man cannot receive the things of God, but we have the mind of Christ, and the Spirit leads into all truth. The Word is two-edged and corrects us, not just others.

   Illustration: We have two sets of eyes and ears, physical and spiritual. That is why new believers need help, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, to read Scripture.

   “Until the Spirit starts to work in your life, the Bible is a closed book.”

   • Genesis 3
   • Isaiah 7:14
   • Matthew 1:23
   • 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
   • John 16:13

6. Rules four to six: the Bible governs the church, one meaning, read literally

   The church does not decide what the Bible teaches; the Bible decides what the church teaches, and a church that departs from the Word is no longer a church. Every passage has one basic meaning, though it may have more than one application: not being unequally yoked applies to marriage and also to business partnerships. Take Scripture literally wherever possible, as you would a journalist's report, rather than spiritualising away something like the resurrection of the body.

   “The church does not determine what the Bible teaches. The Bible determines what the church should teach.”

   • Matthew 5:17
   • 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
   • 1 Corinthians 15

7. Rules seven to twelve: context, parables and the whole counsel

   Interpret in harmony with the original meaning: the woman's feast over a lost coin makes sense once you know the coin was a marriage token. Parables teach one main truth and must not be pressed into doctrine. Revelation is progressive, and some Old Testament practices, like animal sacrifice, fell away only because they were fulfilled in Christ, though God's character never changes. Historical events become symbols only where Scripture says so; a doctrine is biblical only if it includes all the Bible says; and apparent contradictions come from the limits of our minds.

   Illustration: Reading the oil and wine of the Good Samaritan as the Spirit and the blood goes beyond what that parable was given to teach.

   “Old Testament happenings equals New Testament doctrine.”

   • Luke 15:8-10
   • Luke 10:29-37

8. A safety net, and keep it simple

   These rules are not limits on study but a safety net. We never arrive; the Word speaks to us differently at different times, and we need teachers until we can see the whole tapestry rather than fragments. Daily washing in the Word quiets the mind so we can hear. And if you cannot simplify what you have learned so that a ten year old understands it, you have not understood it yet.

   Illustration: Some Muslim men he sees from time to time were stopped in their tracks when he explained the Passover and Egypt from a study he had done years before; they said they had never heard a Christian speak like that, and now ask him about the Bible whenever they meet.

   “If you've learned something and you cannot simplify it where a 10-year-old can understand, then you don't fully have an understanding of what you've learned.”

   • Ephesians 5:26

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