Monthly musings

 
                                                        “That’s Just Your Interpretation!”
 
                                                                               By Robert Lupo
 
 
 
 
One of the most common complaints you will hear when trying to teach the Bible to the lost is, “That’s just your interpretation!” Unfortunately, when you hear this, it usually means that they are not interested in listening.
 
But who can blame them for this attitude? When an outsider looks at the thousands of denominations of “Christianity,” it is easy to see why they don’t value one church’s interpretation over another. After all, if there are thousands of ways to interpret the church of the Bible, then how could you trust any teaching from Scripture?
 
The answer to this question is actually very simple. Any division of interpretation on the Scriptures is not the fault of the Bible, but of those who misuse it. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:20 that, “…no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” There is only one way to interpret the Bible: the way God intended it to be understood. Where, then, do all these interpretations come from? Peter explains in chapter three of that same book.
 
The first explanation is that some things in the Bible are difficult to interpret. In verses 15-16, Peter observes this very thing, “…our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand.”
 
Not everything in the Bible can be understood upon a first reading. This is not the fault of the writer, but the reader. “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace…” (1 Cor. 14:33). Obviously, God had a message that He wants us to understand. So, it is our responsibility to grow our understanding. If we will examine each saying in the context it was written, we will uncover that message.
 
The second explanation is user error. Peter continues in verse 16, “…which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction…” Here, we see that people will distort the meaning of Scripture either out of ignorance or out of malevolence. Some were taught incorrectly while others intentionally try to mislead. The answer to both false teachers, thankfully, is the same. Peter tells us to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v. 18). We need to learn the Scriptures for ourselves. That way we can recognize error.
 
Denominationalism is not the fault of the Bible. God gave us words to live by. These words have meaning. It is our responsibility to carefully handle these words and understand them the way God intended them. My interpretation or your interpretation doesn’t matter.