The Holy Scriptures
The Holy Scriptures
This lesson looks at six simple principles that help us to read, study, and understand the Bible well, and to handle the word correctly.
When we study the Bible, we ought to study it with the purpose God has in mind. I once saw a man use a bottle to hammer a six inch nail into a solid piece of timber. However a bottle was not designed for that purpose. If you keep the right purpose for Bible study in mind, and keep to that purpose, your Bible study will be profitable and enlightening.
Acts 20:32 Paul stated the main purpose of God’s word this way: "I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified"
2Tm 3:15 Paul makes another purpose statement when he tells us that the scriptures are "able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus"
2Tm 3:16-17 Paul continues to describe the purpose of the scriptures, calling them "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work".
James 1:21 James tells us to "Receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls" and so the ultimate purpose of Bible study is our eternal salvation.
Rom 15:4 One more example of how the scriptures show us their purpose: "Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our learning, that through patience and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope".
The Bible is a collection of sixty six books and letters, written at different times and places, in various literary styles, by many different authors, for many different reasons. They are not even all in the same language, the Old Testament books having been originally written mainly in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Koine Greek. Within the covers of the Bible you will therefore find documents that differ widely from each other, yet these documents are all witnesses to one and the same central truth.
The one central theme running through the whole Bible is the story of Jesus Christ God’s Son and our Saviour.
Jhn 1:1,14 John calls Christ the Word. "In the beginning was the Word... and the Word became flesh...". The Bible is the word of God, and Christ is the central message of the Bible, hence his title, the Word.
Jhn 5:39 Jesus said himself, "Search the scriptures... it is these that testify of Me".
Lke 24:27 Jesus understood the scriptures as being about himself. "He explained to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures".
1Co 15:3-4 Paul understood the scriptures in the same way, for he says "...that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised the third day according to the scriptures".
Tit 3:9 When we get away from this theme, our discussions become "foolish... unprofitable and worthless".
It is worth remembering that the Bible has one great theme, Jesus Christ, two great covenants, Old and New, three great ages, Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian. Your Bible study will be well guided by that simple "map" of the Bible.
Someone has said, "A proof text out of context is a pretext". In a later lesson, "What is this thing called context?" we discuss context in more detail, but for now we will just look at some simple examples.
Mtt 24:17 There is a story (which I doubt is true) that a preacher became concerned that the ladies were getting too fancy with their hairdos, so he preached on the subject and took as his text, "topknot go down".
Col 2:21 I am a teetotaller (don’t drink anything alchoholic) but I would certainly never use this verse, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" to support the practice. Can you see why?
John 3:7 A reincarnationist (who believes that when your body dies you are born into another body) once pointed out to me that Jesus said, "You must be born again". Had he examined the context, he would have seen that Jesus was not talking about reincarnation at all.
Acts 19:27-28 In this passage we find much praise for the pagan goddess Artemis or Diana. Note the words, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" It is clear however, as a simple example, that the Bible is not making this claim itself, but is merely recording that the followers of Diana do.
Three more principles