Applying the Bible .2

Yesterday we looked at 5 (and more in the comments) mistakes that are made when trying to apply the Bible to our lives.

Applying the Bible isn’t an easy thing to do. It is quite easy to take things out of context, or to over-simplify what the text is really saying.

Today I want to look at 5 things that hinder us from being able to apply the Bible to our lives.

reading the bible

  1. Confusion. I’ve read hundred, maybe thousands of verses that at some point had me confused. Somehow they seemed to “contradict” something the Bible said somewhere else, or maybe it just didn’t make sense at the time. This shouldn’t hold us back though, we should dig deeper in prayer and study.
  2. Our social lives. This hits right at American culture and even the way many Christians have decided to live within it. We start to read the Bible to fit the way we live, rather than the Bible telling us how to live (an obvious example is divorce).
  3. Being prejudice. This is quite similar to one from yesterday. We often come to the Bible with a set of conclusions and when a verse doesn’t fit our conclusions, we make it fit or we “throw it out”.
  4. Satan. He will do anything he can to take us away from actually applying what the Word of God says.
  5. Sin. We disobey God by failing to apply his Word. We must first remove sin before the Bible can do truly transforming work in our lives.

Your thoughts? Anything you would add to this list?

(HT: Dr. Wecks)