In eternity past, God
devised His Bible project. He decided that He would create a group of writings
to teach human beings things that they need to know. And then in history He
fulfilled this plan by using certain people to bring this literature into
existence.
Although humans had some input into the
Bible, it is essentially a divine thing. God chose what to put in it, and we
can be sure that He knew what He was doing.
Dishonesty in using the Bible
Because the Bible is from God, it
should be obvious that Christians need to take what it says extremely
seriously. And this means that we should always be as honest as we can be about
everything in it.
Sadly, however, this often doesn’t
happen.
I spend a lot of time reading up on
various Christian issues. When I do, I am frequently dismayed by the amount of
biased and dishonest interpretation of biblical passages that goes on, sometimes
even by well-known Christian leaders.
Time and again, I come
across forced interpretations of texts by those who seem determined to make them
say what they want them to. It is also very common for Christians to ignore
passages that are difficult for their views or to exaggerate the support that
passages provide for the case they are making.
Many Christians do these
sorts of things so much that they can’t be making much of an effort to be
honest with what they are reading.
Motivation for dishonesty
varies
The motivation for
dishonest use of the Bible varies.
Sometimes there is at least
a legitimate desire to oppose false teaching. The following, or something similar
to it, often happens:
A truth of the Christian
faith comes under attack. A Christian sees this happening and wants to defend
against it. They therefore respond by quoting biblical passages. However, they
don’t find it easy to make their case. So they try to manufacture extra support
for their arguments by dishonestly interpreting parts of the Bible. Honesty in biblical interpretation is sacrificed,
because an important issue is seen to be at stake.
It is, of course, good to be distressed
by false teaching. But that doesn’t make it right to be dishonest when
combating false teachers. The end never justifies the means. Instead, we should
fight false teaching with Scripture as God inspired it, regardless of how easy
or difficult that is to do.
At other times when Christians
dishonestly use the Bible, the dishonesty isn’t even because of a desire to
oppose false teaching. Often the reason seems to be simply because a Christian
doesn’t like what Scripture teaches on some subject, and they are not willing
to accept what it says. But they are not prepared to admit this openly, so they
force it to say something else instead.
This is a shameful way to treat the
holy Bible.
Almost obsessed about being honest
As Christians, we should be the most honest
people on the planet. And this applies when we are using the Bible, as much as
at any other time. When we are reading Scripture, we should be almost obsessed
about being honest with what we are reading.
Whether what we read is something we do
or don’t want to hear should be beside the point. Instead, we should be
consumed by a desire and determination to understand the text as God inspired
it. We should be constantly saying, “Lord, what are You saying in this passage?
What do You want me to know from it? Not my will but Yours be done.”
The benefits of this
approach
Taking this approach to
Scripture is bound to be pleasing to God and also good for ourselves.
First, we need to be clear
that whenever someone is dishonest in how they use the Bible, they are committing
a sin. And in God’s sight the gravity of sin is enormous. It is a kind of
infinite insult to Him.
Committing sin doesn’t just
grieve God, however. It is always harmful for the sinner too.
Second, as far as
understanding things is concerned, Christians who are determined to interpret
Scripture honestly are at a huge advantage over those who aren’t. If a
Christian is not even really trying to believe what is true, if they are not
giving it their best shot, then they are bound to fall into a lot more error
than a believer who is trying to do
this.
Fighting to be honest
In the light of what I have said, I
would like to challenge every Christian who is reading this. If you haven’t
done so already, I would urge you to make a decision that from this point
forward you will fight tooth and nail to honestly interpret the Bible in all
that it says.
In some ways this might
make using Scripture more difficult. If we are really open to God telling us
whatever He wants to from it, we can expect to find that the conclusions we
reach are sometimes uncomfortable or even painful. At times, they will be ones
that we would prefer not to reach.
But this is the attitude to
the Bible that followers of Jesus are duty bound to take.
See also:
