Reading the Bible (8)

 

The Apostle Peter wrote the following words toward the end of his life in the New Testament book that we call 2 Peter:

2PE 1:19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

 

            Peter makes the same point as Paul does regarding the inspiration of the Bible. He tells us that the Scriptures did not originate with man but with God. Peter’s image of men being carried along by the Holy Spirit parallels Paul’s used of the term God-breathed. The Holy Spirit of God acted upon and within men and they wrote what they saw, heard, and thought.

            Peter makes another important point when he writes in verse 20 that the prophet’s own interpretation was not a part of what was written. In other words, the writers of Scripture did not superimpose their own thoughts onto what God was speaking to them in such a way as to change what God was saying. The translation used above is the NIV, let’s look at another translation, the NASB, to get another perspective on verse 20:

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.

 

            The NASB translation is the traditional translation of verse 20 (we’ll have a section on translations later on), and we see that the NASB’s point is that not only did the prophets who wrote the Scriptures not pollute it with their own ideas (verse 21) but that when we read the Scriptures we ought to make sure that our interpretation of what we read is not a private matter but that it is in harmony with the rest of Scripture and with apostolic teaching (verse 20).

            While we will explore this in more depth later in our study, the immediate point that I want to make is that the Christian life is not to be lived in isolation, but rather in community, and this community includes the interpretation of the Bible. This is one reason why it is important to be part of a local church that believes the holy Bible is the Word of God and which practices a mature approach to understanding and interpreting the Bible.

            While the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and lead us into truth, the Scriptures make it clear that He does not do this in isolation and I should never be defensive about testing my understanding of the Bible alongside historical Christian teaching and alongside my contemporaries.

            Paul writes to the Ephesians:

EPH 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

 

            Notice the description of the foundation upon which we are built; apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone. Without question Christ is the cornerstone, the holy temple of which we are members is all about Jesus and He is the only true light of the City of God, (see Revelation 21:22-23; 22:5). Yet in this passage we are taught that the apostles and prophets are also part of the foundation – what does this mean? (See also Revelation 21:14).

            If we take the term “prophets” to refer to the Old Testament and the term “apostles” to refer to the New Testament, for virtually all of the Old Testament was written by prophets and virtually all of the New Testament was written by apostles (and those portions of the New Testament not written by apostles were written by men who were partners in an apostle’s ministry), then we see that this idea of apostles and prophets means two things:

            Firstly, that our belief and practice should be consistent with what the apostles and prophets wrote, that is, our teaching and lives should be consistent with the Old and New Testaments.

            Secondly, our lives and beliefs should be consistent with the way the apostles and prophets lived.

            I am making this distinction because all too often we think that if we give mental assent to the Bible that that is enough, but it is not enough. Our lives must conform to the holy Scriptures and to the manner of life of the people who God used to write the Scriptures.

            Therefore, important questions when studying the Bible and when evaluating the way we live, and the way in which our local churches function are: Is what I am thinking and the way I am living consistent with apostolic teaching? Can I trace this belief and/or this behavior back to the apostles? Is this thinking or way of life consistent with the apostles and prophets?

                        The Apostle Peter wrote the following words to Christians around 64 A.D.

               2PE 3:14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this [a new heaven and a new earth], make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

 

            There are two things I’d like us to see in this passage in which Peter mentions the letters that Paul wrote to Christians. The first is the phrase, the other Scriptures. The Apostle Peter classified Paul’s writings as Scripture, on the same level as the Old Testament. This shows us that even while the Apostles and the other New Testament writers were alive that their writings were viewed as Scripture, as holy and inspired by God. Because they are inspired by God people who misuse them, who distort them, do so to their own destruction.

            The other thing for us to consider is how Peter characterizes Paul’s letters. Peter writes that his [Paul’s] letters contain some things that are hard to understand.

As we get to know the Bible we’ll get to know the human authors that God inspired to write the Bible, and as we get to know the human authors we’ll see that a sense of who they were often comes through what they wrote and the way they wrote.

Peter says that Paul wrote some hard things, things that are so hard to understand that if a person doesn’t submit his understanding to the Holy Spirit that the person is going to get in trouble – this wouldn’t be an issue with any other book, but it is an issue with the Bible – our attitudes are important when we read the Bible.

            God didn’t turn the human writers of the Bible into robots when they wrote; God is a God of relationship who caused the Bible to be written in the context of relationship, of His relationship with men and of their relationship with humanity.

            God likely chose some men for certain ministries and Scripture writing because of the way He had made them. For example, Paul’s education, cultural background, and single-minded temperament suited him to write hard and complex things and also suited him to preach the Gospel and plant churches in the heavily Greek-thinking areas of Asia Minor and Europe.

            Moses’s education at the Egyptian court gave him an understanding of government, legal systems, and the military; while he would have to learn not to depend upon his natural learning but to depend on God, once he learned dependence on God, God could use Moses’s education to lead a nation out of slavery, engage in warfare, and institute a complex system of worship and law.  

            There are those who say that a Coke in a can tastes different than a Coke in a bottle. Those who know wine can taste the difference between wine aged in oak and wine aged in stainless steel. The formula of the Coke is the same, the vintage of the wine is the same, but they taste differently depending on the vessel they come from.  Such is the way of the inspiration of the Bible. God didn’t exclude the characters of the human agents He inspired; John, Peter and Paul all wrote differently. The prophet Jeremiah has a flavor that is distinct from Isaiah or Ezekiel. God did not negate who these men were anymore than He wants to negate who we are – after all, God created each one of us uniquely and He knows us intimately (see Psalm 139).

To be continued....