Tag: interpreting scripture

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John John 7

Judging scripture rightly

John

We looked yesterday at how Jesus warned the Jews against judging against appearances. The first reason was that they were judging him by his education, and as a result, many blew off his teaching.

But the second reason Jesus warned the Jews against judging against appearances was that their interpretation of scripture was wrong.

To the Jews, it appeared that healing people on the Sabbath was wrong because it was “work.”

But if they had looked carefully at all of the scriptures, they would have discovered it is always lawful to do good. (Matthew 12:12)

Sometimes Christians make the same mistake. They look at a scripture and they misinterpret it. Why? Because they miss the context of the passage.

Sometimes it’s the immediate context of the scripture. Sometimes, it’s the context of all of scripture.

What do I mean?

We saw one example of this in John 6, where Jesus talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

Taken out of its immediate context, it sounds very gruesome. Put into its context, we see that Jesus is talking figuratively. That if we come to him (eat his flesh) and put our faith in him (drink his blood), we’ll have eternal life.

I had a friend point out another passage in which Jesus was anointed with very expensive oil. His disciples then sharply criticized the woman who did this (Mary of Bethany), saying she should have helped the poor instead by selling the perfume.

But Jesus told them, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” (Matthew 26:11)

My friend commented, “How arrogant Jesus was being.”

But he failed to take two things into account.

First, in the book of John, we find that Judas, the main person who criticized Mary, had no actual concern for the poor. He was actually embezzling money from all they collected for the poor. (John 12:6)

Second, Jesus was actually quoting a scripture from Deuteronomy 15:11, which says,

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

Jesus’ point then was not that the poor weren’t important. He was saying, “There will always be poor people and we should help them as we have been.

“But you won’t always have the chance to show love for me. She’s taking that opportunity while she can. So don’t criticize her for that.”

So in the whole context of scripture, Jesus wasn’t being arrogant at all; he was simply defending Mary’s actions against a hypocritical disciple’s criticism.

But when we pull a scripture out of context, it’s easy to make the kind of mistake my friend did.

Let us be careful then, how we read scripture. Let us take in the immediate context of what we read, as well as the whole of scripture.

Only in doing so can we make right judgments about what it is saying.

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John John 2

Wine or grape juice?

John

A long time ago, as a teenager I think, I glanced through a book called “Wine or Grape Juice?” or some such title.

I can’t really remember all it said, but I got the impression through the book that when Jesus created “wine” in Cana, he really created grape juice.

The author no doubt went through a lot of word studies and other things to prove his point.

I kind of carried that opinion for a long time until someone pointed out to me the context. What was the context?

Very simply, verse 10 where the master of the banquet tasted the wine Jesus created and proclaimed for all to hear,

Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now. (John 2:10)

Now stop a moment, and substitute the word grape juice in there and ask yourself, “Does this make sense?”

“Everyone brings out the choice grape juice first, and then the cheaper grape juice after the guests have had too much grape juice to drink; but you have saved the best grape juice till now.”

This makes no sense at all. If it was simply grape juice, there would be no alcoholic content in it. And if there was no alcoholic content in it, why would a host wait for everyone to drink too much of the best grape juice before serving the cheap stuff?

Answer: They wouldn’t.

This completely shoots down this theory in my opinion, unless someone can explain logically the meaning of this passage using grape juice.

Does Jesus then teach that it’s okay to get drunk? Of course not. Scripture clearly teaches against that.

But it doesn’t say anything about never drinking alcohol. Rather, it makes it clear that alcohol is not to control us. (Ephesians 5:18).

By the way, just to make one point clear, I don’t drink at all for two reasons. First, I don’t like the taste. Even more importantly, I don’t know what my limits are, and I have no desire to find out.

But the point I want to make here above all else is to be careful how we interpret God’s word.

The reason that many people want to believe Jesus made grape juice instead of wine is that they’re dead set against drinking of any kind.

But in trying to explain away John 2, they resort to word studies that completely ignore the context of scripture.

There are four points we should remember whenever we read scripture or hear anyone preach about it.

1. Pay attention to context. Too often, people get into trouble because they don’t. A lot of cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons get into trouble because of this.

2. Let the scripture speak for itself. And if it happens to contradict what you think, you should change your thinking in order to match scripture, not the reverse.

3. Understand the role of culture in scripture. Some people get a little put off by Jesus addressing his mother as “Woman” in verse 4.

(The NIV softens it to “Dear woman,” but the “Dear” is not there in the original manuscripts of scripture.)

In our culture, it’s very disrespectful. In theirs, it was very respectful.

4. Do as Mary said in this chapter.

Do whatever [Jesus] tells you. (John 2:5)

Don’t just read scripture. Don’t just listen to it. But obey it. For it is the very words of God.

If you do these things, it’ll not only save you a lot of trouble as you interpret scripture, but also as you live your life.

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Ezekiel

Saving ourselves, saving others

Ezekiel

When I was younger, I remember reading a book that said that if we became Christians, it meant that God guaranteed that our families would be saved too.

The author quoted Acts 16:31, where Paul said,

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.

So the book encouraged us to pray for our families’ salvation.

While I agree with the need to pray for our families’ salvation, I disagree with the interpretation of the scripture.

I believe what Paul meant was, “If you and your family will put your faith in Christ you all will be saved.”

In other words, if the jailer whom Paul was talking to put his faith in Christ, he would be saved. And if his family put their faith in Christ, they would be saved too.

It’s very important as we interpret scripture to not just look at one verse before reaching a conclusion, but to look at what the Bible says on the topic as a whole.

If we look at Paul’s further teachings, he told the Corinthians, “If your unsaved husband or wife decides they want to leave you, let them leave.” Why? Because,

How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? (1 Corinthians 7:16)

This was of course a rhetorical question, the answer to which was, “You don’t know if your spouse will ever get saved, so let them go.”

This flies straight in the face of the interpretation of Acts 16:31 which says that if you get saved, it automatically means that your whole family will be saved.

This passage in Ezekiel also contradicts this teaching. Here, God proclaims judgment on Israel saying,

Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Ezekiel 14:13–14)

And again,

Even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved. (Ezekiel 14:18)

Several times in this passage, God repeats the same thing. A person cannot save others by their own righteousness, only themselves.

Of course, our righteousness is a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. As Paul says,

The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

That was true in the Old Testament days, the New Testament days, and even in our days.

What then am I trying to say?

Ultimately, people need to make their own choices, whether to follow God or not.

We cannot coerce people into following God. They need to choose to do so on their own.

What is our responsibility then? To pray for them, certainly. But also to make sure that we tell them the way of salvation.

That’s all we can do. The rest is up to them and God.

None of us want to think of our family or our friends going to hell. But it’s not up to us. They’ve got to make their own choices.

So with this in mind, here’s the question you need to ask yourself: “Am I doing all I can to make sure that they have the opportunity to follow Christ?”