Applying the Bible
2008
December
09
The easiest way to read Man of Depravity is through a Reader.
A common struggle for most Bible readers is applying what the Bible says to their personal life. Sadly the Bible was not written as a perfect manuscript for each of our lives. Instead we have to take what it says and apply it to our lives.
Today I’ll look at 5 common mistakes that everyone makes when trying to apply the Bible to their lives.
- Stopping at interpretation. We love to figure out what the text is actually saying, but too often we don’t take that and apply it to our lives. An example of this is looking at different Biblical characters and seeing their sin and struggles, yet we do not work on our sins and our struggles.
- Avoiding application. Most Christians are really good at applying the parts of the Bible that they are already living out. It makes us feel good. It is much easier to just not apply the parts we aren’t living out.
- Pinning the application to someone else. We see this on Sunday mornings during a message. Someone else comes to mind or we nudge our neighbor or spouse after the pastor reads a “stinging” verse.
- We are really good at rationalization. How often has the Bible hit hard and you immediately think of something else that the Bible says or that a pastor has said and it lets us “off the hook”? I can’t even explain how, but our brain can rationalize just about anything, including what the Bible really says.
- Stopping at conviction. How many times have I thought…”wow that Scripture was convicting for me”? TOO MANY! Being convicted about what the Bible says means nothing. Action means everything.
Do any of these really stick out to you?
(HT: Dr. Wecks)
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Tyler Braun.
interpretation. it’s subjective. it’s one of those things that different verses will convict us differently or encourage us differently each time we read/hear them depending on where we are in our life. as long as we are in tune with God wants from us at the point, we are far from ignoring what we must do. and it takes time and effort, a lifetime and longer to understand our sins, our accomplishments and the heart of God in all of it…..just thinking this morning….
I would probably say this might fall under the interpretation category, but in my opinion the main issue most people have whenever they read the bible is they come with ample presuppisitions. Too often they come with whatever their pastor, sunday school teacher, mom & dad or friends have told them regarding a certain theological idea or principles. Rather than letting the whole text of the bible speak on its own, we tend to bring presuppisitions to the text and use this as a filter for interpretation. This tends to get things buggered up when one is confronted with a new theological principle clearly shown in scripture, that doesn’t fall in line with their presuppisition. Rather than finding fault with their presuppisition, they tend to over look or twist the scripture to make it fit within their theological box.
Ash- Good thought. My only worry there is that can result in #2 pretty quickly.
Preston- I totally agree.
that’s why we are human though, and not God…I’m never going to have it down, but it makes me realize that i need jesus. that’s what humility is all about and person w/o that would find any conviction meaningless nor will they grow. it comes down to a choice and ultimately personal responsibility
hey.
this is really random, but i found your blog through ragamuffinsoul…i saw that you go to multnomah…i go to cascade college right up the street from there. so i just wanted to say hi.
kacie.
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