Will You Ever Write a Piper Bible Commentary?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | We recorded these episodes early
00:00:05.360 | because by airtime, Pastor John,
00:00:06.960 | you will not be in your office in Minnesota,
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00:00:53.800 | on behalf of Pastor John.
00:00:56.040 | Well, today's question's fairly common,
00:00:58.440 | and this time it comes to us from an anonymous listener
00:01:00.680 | who simply asks this, Pastor John,
00:01:03.040 | have you ever thought about releasing a commentary
00:01:04.960 | on the whole Bible?
00:01:06.040 | I know a few pastors have done it,
00:01:07.320 | and I'm not saying that every pastor should do it,
00:01:09.580 | but since you release a good amount of content
00:01:11.320 | like books, articles, sermons, and podcasts,
00:01:13.480 | I've wondered if you plan on releasing a commentary
00:01:16.460 | on the Bible or on certain books.
00:01:18.920 | You seem capable.
00:01:20.280 | And what would make a great Bible commentary
00:01:22.560 | in your opinion?
00:01:24.720 | - The closest things I have done to a commentary
00:01:29.720 | is to preach through books of the Bible,
00:01:33.520 | and then post those manuscripts along with the audio
00:01:37.480 | or the video online at Desiring God.
00:01:40.320 | So for example, there's 250 sermons on Romans
00:01:45.080 | and a few other books that I did over the years.
00:01:48.760 | That's the closest thing.
00:01:49.760 | I mean, if you read every one of those sermons,
00:01:51.680 | that would be my commentary on Romans.
00:01:55.360 | Recently, I did, I finished about 100
00:02:01.080 | Look at the Book podcasts on 1 Peter,
00:02:06.360 | taking it a verse or two at a time,
00:02:09.040 | and talking my way through the meaning of the text,
00:02:14.800 | mainly with a visual teaching aid
00:02:17.040 | called Look at the Book online,
00:02:18.860 | to try to help people see how I get meaning out of texts.
00:02:23.860 | Now, this may sound strange coming from a preacher
00:02:30.120 | who spent over three decades of his life
00:02:32.480 | heralding the meaning of text,
00:02:34.580 | but there is a strong bent in me
00:02:38.280 | that wants to help people be able to find the meaning
00:02:41.240 | of text for themselves,
00:02:42.720 | rather than me just telling them what it is.
00:02:46.400 | I know preachers do tell meanings,
00:02:48.980 | but I've got this bent that I want people to see
00:02:53.620 | how to get it for themselves,
00:02:55.740 | even in the way I preached.
00:02:58.460 | And I was trying to do that.
00:03:00.900 | I was trying to show meaning in a way
00:03:05.140 | that people would see, how did he get that?
00:03:07.900 | Where did that come from?
00:03:09.300 | Show me the very words and the logic.
00:03:13.460 | And if I didn't help them see that,
00:03:16.340 | I felt the sermon was weak,
00:03:18.720 | that they were gonna then take my word for it
00:03:21.040 | instead of seeing it in the very words of scripture.
00:03:24.000 | So even in the way I preached,
00:03:26.240 | I had this bent that I wanted mainly,
00:03:30.600 | I don't know if the word mainly is right here,
00:03:32.380 | but strongly to see how to get meaning for themselves.
00:03:37.380 | So that bent of mind has led me
00:03:42.080 | to do Look at the Book podcast,
00:03:44.520 | which strives to help people see how to get meaning
00:03:47.360 | from text rather than just be spoon-fed the meaning of text.
00:03:51.280 | And I suppose there is a kind of commentary
00:03:55.800 | that would put the emphasis
00:03:57.760 | on helping people find the meaning themselves.
00:04:00.520 | That's the kind I would want to write
00:04:02.180 | if I wrote a commentary,
00:04:05.080 | because there's a deep conviction behind this,
00:04:09.520 | namely that over the long haul,
00:04:12.320 | strong Christians are created
00:04:16.080 | not by sermons and by books alone,
00:04:19.460 | but by a personal encounter with the word of God,
00:04:23.640 | the Bible itself.
00:04:25.760 | So I want to encourage people to linger long enough
00:04:30.280 | over the scriptures themselves and ask enough questions
00:04:33.800 | and look at things from enough angles
00:04:35.840 | and spend enough brain power and pour out enough prayers
00:04:41.220 | that they make amazing and true discoveries
00:04:45.360 | for themselves from the text.
00:04:48.340 | This is what makes spindly,
00:04:53.060 | cattail Christians into oaks of righteousness.
00:04:58.060 | It sends our roots down into the granite foundations
00:05:03.100 | of biblical truth so that we stop being flip-floppy,
00:05:08.940 | blown around in the winds kind of Christians
00:05:11.860 | who are always learning
00:05:12.700 | and never coming to knowledge of the truth.
00:05:14.900 | Turns them into oaks of righteousness
00:05:16.980 | 'cause they can see,
00:05:18.460 | they can see for themselves what's really there
00:05:22.180 | in the precious, inspired word of God.
00:05:26.020 | So I don't know.
00:05:27.840 | I don't know whether I will write a commentary,
00:05:32.840 | but if I wrote a commentary,
00:05:35.580 | I would like to write one that forces questions of reality.
00:05:40.580 | This is kind of a second point
00:05:44.860 | besides helping people see for themselves,
00:05:46.540 | but a way of understanding,
00:05:50.580 | forces questions of reality.
00:05:53.180 | Sometimes these questions are called application,
00:05:55.620 | like, "Oh, we need some application in the commentary."
00:05:59.260 | I think that's misleading, given what I'm after,
00:06:03.620 | because it assumes that we've got the meaning down
00:06:07.580 | and we understand the reality spoken of,
00:06:10.340 | and what we need is just connect it
00:06:11.660 | with something in our lives.
00:06:13.740 | Well, I think very often we are using,
00:06:18.020 | even commentators are using biblical words and phrases
00:06:23.020 | as if we know what we're talking about
00:06:26.620 | when we haven't really paused to ponder very deeply,
00:06:30.660 | "What's the reality?
00:06:32.780 | "The reality, reality of the words and phrases?
00:06:37.780 | "What are we referring to?"
00:06:41.420 | Give you an example.
00:06:42.860 | 1 Peter 2, verse one goes like this.
00:06:46.420 | "Put away all malice and all deceit
00:06:51.100 | "and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."
00:06:55.380 | Now, the average commentary moves fairly quickly
00:07:00.940 | over these five realities,
00:07:05.380 | malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander,
00:07:10.380 | but in my way of looking at the scriptures,
00:07:16.300 | each one of those requires hours, hours,
00:07:21.300 | H-O-U-R-S, of reflection about the very nature
00:07:30.660 | of the experience in the human heart.
00:07:33.100 | What is malice?
00:07:35.980 | Why is it something that's malicious?
00:07:40.060 | That is, why is something malice?
00:07:43.620 | How is it different from the others in the list?
00:07:46.820 | How does it relate to God?
00:07:49.180 | How does it relate to the devil?
00:07:51.340 | How does it relate to my personality?
00:07:54.060 | Is it present in people who are genetically nice?
00:07:59.220 | Is it a serious problem if people never act on it?
00:08:03.260 | How does it fit in the list?
00:08:05.580 | Why is it listed first and on and on and on?
00:08:09.220 | This takes 10, 15 pages.
00:08:11.540 | No commentary does that,
00:08:13.500 | and I don't think I'm gonna write it,
00:08:15.420 | but I'm just pleading with people to ask reality questions
00:08:21.660 | and to take a pen in hand or get on the computer
00:08:25.300 | and start mauling and pondering and asking
00:08:28.660 | and thinking to go down into reality.
00:08:31.980 | Most commentaries simply don't have the time
00:08:35.540 | or perhaps the inclination to ask
00:08:38.220 | these kinds of reality questions,
00:08:40.900 | and yet, in my experience, this is the kind of rumination,
00:08:45.900 | like a cow chewing the cud for hours,
00:08:50.220 | swallowing it, spitting it back up from another stomach
00:08:53.380 | and chewing it again, swallowing it,
00:08:54.820 | spitting it up, chewing it again,
00:08:56.180 | however that works with cows.
00:08:57.580 | It's good, good analogy.
00:08:59.180 | Rumination is the most life-changing
00:09:03.460 | for us and for preachers.
00:09:05.620 | Oh, preachers, this is what your people need you to do.
00:09:10.420 | Not just fly over that list.
00:09:12.780 | Take a week on malice.
00:09:15.140 | Take a week on deceit.
00:09:16.660 | Take a week on hypocrisy and think your way
00:09:19.500 | into the depths of evil that are named there.
00:09:24.180 | So I suppose there would be two things
00:09:28.380 | that would characterize the commentary I would write.
00:09:31.420 | In summary, one, it would try to inculcate
00:09:34.340 | a pattern of asking and answering questions
00:09:37.220 | that enable people to see things for themselves,
00:09:40.580 | and secondly, it would try to inculcate
00:09:43.500 | the habit of probing for reality,
00:09:46.780 | not just verbal relations.
00:09:49.860 | - Yes, thank you, Pastor John, much appreciated.
00:09:52.700 | They are not commentaries per se, but close,
00:09:55.260 | and I'm talking to the over 2,000 sermons
00:09:58.100 | from John Piper on our site right now
00:09:59.900 | at desiringgod.org/messages.
00:10:03.020 | You can find the popular Roman series there as well.
00:10:05.500 | It's in that collection.
00:10:07.700 | And this is my chance to let you know
00:10:08.780 | you can subscribe to our audio feeds
00:10:10.340 | and you can search our episode archive
00:10:11.900 | and even reach us by email with a difficulty
00:10:13.700 | that you're facing in life or a question for Pastor John.
00:10:16.420 | You can do all that through our online home
00:10:17.980 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:22.220 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:23.460 | Thanks again for listening to the podcast,
00:10:25.100 | and this is a reminder, please be praying
00:10:27.180 | for Pastor John now in Hong Kong
00:10:29.420 | and soon to be ministering to the people of South Korea,
00:10:32.380 | all Lord willing, of course,
00:10:34.140 | but your prayers are appreciated.
00:10:35.860 | Thanks for listening, we'll see you next time.
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