Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (43 page)

Again, context is crucial. Have you ever heard someone come up with an interpretation of a verse that sounds plausible in isolation, but heretical in comparison with the neighboring verses? It’s a case of the ugly duckling. It doesn’t fit. Something’s out of place. In fact, a good habit to get into whenever
you interpret a passage is to step back, look at the interpretation, and ask, what’s wrong with this picture? Or does everything fall into place?

We saw in Psalm 1 that the person who delights in God’s law will be like a well-watered tree. And verse 3 adds, “in whatever he does he prospers.” Now some people come to that and claim that it guarantees material prosperity to every faithful believer. But does that really fit the context or the purpose of the author?

Hardly. Looking at Psalm 1 as a whole, and at the rest of the psalms, it’s clear that the psalmists were far more concerned about people’s walk with God than they were with their financial well-being. Psalm 1:3 makes the most sense if we understand it to describe the quality of a person’s outcome, not the quantity of blessings he enjoys.

The great interpreter of Scripture is Scripture. The Bible is unified in its message. Although it sometimes presents us with paradox, it never confounds us with contradiction.

Jesus told His followers, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25). What an intriguing image. People have gone to incredible lengths to try and explain what Jesus is talking about.

But one thing we know for certain: He is not saying that there can be no salvation for the rich. That’s what the disciples wondered (v. 26). But not only does He respond to that question (v. 27); the rest of Scripture teaches otherwise. For instance, Paul warns against the dangers of wealth (1 Timothy 6:17–19), but he never says that the wealthy are categorically excluded from the kingdom.

So if Mark 10 were all we had on the subject, we might have reason to wonder as the disciples did. But by comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can put it in perspective.

This follows from the point just made. We need to be consistent in our interpretation of Scripture and in the systems of belief that we build using Scripture.

That is rather severe language. What does Paul mean by, “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him”? Is this a threat that if a person commits suicide, he forfeits his salvation? Some have taken it that way. But not only does that compromise the context, it conflicts with the doctrine of eternal security, the teaching that God will preserve His children. Furthermore, Paul encourages us to read this passage and its context figuratively (4:6). A literal interpretation would make no sense.

S
o far in this section I’ve given you a lot of information on the interpretation of Scripture. I’ve pointed out some of the obstacles to understanding the text, along with some of the dangers to avoid. I’ve discussed the importance of genre and how that influences what we read. I’ve handed you five keys to unlocking the meaning of the text—content, context, comparison, culture, and consultation.

I reviewed some of the many kinds of secondary sources that can assist you in that consultation process. Then I focused on the use of the concordance in investigating terms. And finally I listed ten principles for figuring out the figurative passages in the biblical account.

Now let’s get some involvement. In this chapter I want to demonstrate how to put these parts of the process together by looking at a specific passage, the first two verses of Romans 12. They form a paragraph, which is helpful. Remember that the paragraph forms the basic unit of Bible study. (See
page 275
for the textual recreation.)