How Do I Test My Interpretations of the Bible?

00:00:00.000 | Dan Block, a listener in Kansas City, Missouri, writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, you

00:00:05.000 | write a lot of books, you speak often, and your words reach many Christians around the

00:00:08.600 | world.

00:00:09.600 | But how do you make sure that what you're saying and writing is in line with God's desire,

00:00:13.840 | His will, and His heart?

00:00:15.280 | You influence so many people.

00:00:16.880 | So how do you make sure that your interpretations of God's Word are in line with God's intention?"

00:00:22.500 | The first thing I do is take this question seriously, and I have taken it seriously for

00:00:26.480 | about 50 years, and the reason I take it seriously is because the Bible takes it so seriously.

00:00:32.400 | A person like me, and I've been this way for a long time, who loves to write and needs

00:00:39.640 | to write in order to know what I think, and then also loves to share what I've seen and

00:00:47.600 | what I've discovered with others, a person like that needs to be aware of the warnings

00:00:55.520 | that the Bible gives about the dangers in front of me, him.

00:01:01.340 | For example, James 3, verse 1, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for

00:01:08.880 | you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

00:01:16.160 | For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect

00:01:22.760 | man, able also to bridle his whole body."

00:01:26.200 | So when James says, "Not many should become teachers," he's admitting God calls some people

00:01:32.680 | to open their mouths and explain the Bible and write some things down that might be helpful

00:01:39.280 | to other people in understanding God's Word.

00:01:42.580 | So the point of James 3, verse 1 is not that it's wrong to be a teacher, it's just risky,

00:01:47.720 | really risky, and nobody should rush into it.

00:01:51.080 | So there's a trembling that this question should give to me and others.

00:01:56.520 | I've wondered along the way whether the verses in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs should keep me

00:02:03.860 | from writing and speaking so much.

00:02:07.720 | Ecclesiastes 5, 2, "Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter

00:02:13.800 | a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth.

00:02:18.000 | Therefore let your words be few."

00:02:20.000 | I've written millions of words.

00:02:21.960 | That doesn't sound like few.

00:02:23.360 | Or Proverbs 10, 19, "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever

00:02:29.980 | restrains his lips is prudent."

00:02:34.320 | Those passages should give a person like me pause, and they have, but after they have

00:02:39.520 | given me pause, what I think they mean basically is, in the presence of God, don't think you

00:02:47.720 | will be heard or impressive for your many words.

00:02:52.520 | And in conversations, beware of people who blather away with endless words, who never

00:02:59.600 | get to the point and create a fog rather than clarity, and dodge the issue with many words

00:03:07.660 | and smooth talk.

00:03:09.520 | Watch out.

00:03:10.520 | Don't be one and don't get sucked in by one.

00:03:14.760 | In other words, the abundance of words in prayer and the abundance of words in conversation

00:03:21.040 | can be a sign of hypocrisy and that your heart is wrong and something's being hidden.

00:03:28.780 | So my first strategy in answer to the question is beware and be aware of the dangers of speaking

00:03:37.940 | and writing and teaching.

00:03:39.680 | Second, I have tried to develop the mindset that measures intuitively, instinctively,

00:03:47.640 | that measures virtually every truth claim and every attitude by the Bible.

00:03:54.400 | I try to treat my mind like a concordance.

00:03:57.880 | And when I'm faced with a question about what I should think about something or what I should

00:04:03.080 | feel, I type on the keyboard of my mind relevant words or ideas, and I push the button and

00:04:09.660 | start the concordance running to see what passages or verses in the scripture will come

00:04:14.800 | up that will shed light on this.

00:04:17.600 | I get real nervous about people who are so opposed to proof texting.

00:04:21.400 | They never think in terms of texts.

00:04:24.320 | I think exactly the opposite should be drilled into people.

00:04:30.000 | Test all things, hold fast to what is good.

00:04:33.000 | I don't know any way to test all things except by verses in the Bible that teach truths in

00:04:40.320 | the Bible.

00:04:41.320 | If you try to abstract truths from the Bible and disconnect them from verses because you're

00:04:46.200 | so averse to proof texting, you know what's going to happen?

00:04:49.440 | You won't have truth in the end.

00:04:51.080 | You'll have vague general ideas that you can massage to fit your own ideas.

00:04:55.640 | It's verses, it's concrete statements from the Bible that help us.

00:05:01.540 | So I've tried to make my mind a concordance and test everything by the worrying of that

00:05:07.560 | hard drive in my brain.

00:05:09.760 | Third, I've tried to develop over the years a very intense and rigorous and detailed and

00:05:17.040 | attentive habit of reading scripture closely and carefully, not loosely, flippantly, carelessly

00:05:24.680 | proof texting my preferences, but really test my thoughts by thinking the thoughts of the

00:05:32.780 | biblical writers after them by a rigorous, intense, close, careful, detailed attention

00:05:41.080 | to the train of thought that they develop in their writing.

00:05:45.300 | Fourth, I've tried to avoid taking positions that are eccentric.

00:05:51.780 | I don't mind using eccentric language like Christian hedonism, but oh, I really abominate

00:05:58.340 | eccentric positions, viewpoints, because I don't think that isolated verses and peculiar

00:06:09.060 | interpretations and eccentric viewpoints are safe.

00:06:15.300 | It is sometimes called the analogy of scripture that I try to follow, meaning that when you

00:06:20.940 | see, you think you see something in the Bible, you test it.

00:06:24.980 | Is it contradicted anywhere else in the Bible?

00:06:28.480 | Is it a viewpoint that is out of step with the rest of the Bible?

00:06:32.940 | So I've tried to cultivate the habit of not giving verses weird interpretations to support

00:06:39.780 | weird positions that put me on the periphery of Christianity.

00:06:44.340 | I want to stay near the center, which is very much like number five.

00:06:50.980 | I never want to propound any new truth, ever.

00:06:56.900 | I only want to propound old truths.

00:07:00.980 | I am very suspicious of newness and chronological snobbery, C.S. Lewis called it.

00:07:08.460 | The Bible is an old book and it is a sufficient book and it is very likely that any claim

00:07:15.640 | to new truth, except maybe in the discoveries of the hard sciences, are very likely distortions

00:07:23.100 | of reality.

00:07:24.100 | I love to take my cue from Jeremiah 6.16, "Stand by the roads and look and ask for the

00:07:31.700 | ancient paths where the good way is."

00:07:35.700 | Finally, no, no, next to last, 6.

00:07:40.180 | Over the years and even in these later years, I have tried to surround myself with people

00:07:46.620 | whom I am accountable to morally and in my ideas as well as my attitudes and behaviors.

00:07:55.540 | I don't think anything I write goes public before someone else at Desiring God reads

00:08:02.940 | it except for my tweets, which are almost all straight scripture anyway.

00:08:09.740 | Everything else I write by way of articles or books, I suppose sermons also.

00:08:14.900 | I preach, but then after I preach them, everybody hears them and the guys can call me to account

00:08:21.220 | if I said anything weird.

00:08:23.740 | Before they're posted at the website, they get a rigorous going through by the team at

00:08:28.460 | Desiring God.

00:08:30.140 | Not just wanting to be in sync with history and not do anything new, but wanting to be

00:08:35.820 | tested by responsible, close associates.

00:08:40.500 | The last thing I would say is I pray constantly that God will lead me into truth and in paths

00:08:48.660 | of righteousness and that he will keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking

00:08:53.980 | deceit.

00:08:55.500 | Or to use the words of Psalm 19, I pray, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation

00:09:01.740 | of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

00:09:08.140 | I pray finally often, pretty much every time I go to speak at least, I pray that when anybody

00:09:15.340 | reads or hears me, what I've written, what I've said, they will be given a heart by

00:09:22.260 | the Lord to believe what is true and to be protected from any mistakes I've made.

00:09:29.820 | Amen.

00:09:30.820 | Thank you, Pastor John, for these words on the hazards of Bible interpretation.

00:09:36.300 | For more details about this podcast or to catch up on all the episodes we've released,

00:09:40.660 | about 950 to date, or to subscribe to the audio feed or send us a question of your own,

00:09:46.020 | go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:09:47.900 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:09:52.220 | Pastor John and I will be back on Monday.

00:09:54.420 | We'll see you then.

00:09:55.260 | [End]

00:09:57.260 | 1.5.1

00:09:58.260 | Desiring God's Word

00:09:59.260 | 1.5.1

00:10:00.260 | Desiring God's Word

00:10:01.260 | 1.5.1

00:10:02.260 | Desiring God's Word

00:10:03.260 | 1.5.1

How Do I Test My Interpretations of the Bible?

Chapters