Interpretation Matters Series, Part 2

I’m bad at putting things together. I often need help translating the assembly instructions into real-world action, especially if they’re just pictures. Yet, if someone helps me, they don’t take over the job completely. They might lend me a tool, explain what a step means, or demonstrate how something is done, but I still do the work of putting the pieces together.

Bible interpretation is similar. You need the Spirit’s help. Without it, you can’t interpret the Bible properly. But you also need diligent effort.

Interpret Dependently

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says that “the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually” (14). No one can properly understand God’s revelation unless God’s Spirit enables them to.

This is one reason God gives the Holy Spirit: “Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God” (12). When the Spirit enables someone to understand and believe God’s revelation, it’s called illumination. The Spirit turns on the lights in a darkened mind and grants sight to the heart’s blinded eyes, leading them to understand and believe God’s revealed truth.

This shows what I mean by “proper” interpretation and understanding. Unbelievers can grasp logical truths of the gospel, but they don’t believe them. Unbelievers can comprehend historical facts of the Bible, but they often scoff at them. Proper Bible interpretation never stops at mere intellectual understanding; it always results in belief, application, and worship. That happens only by the Spirit.

In order to interpret the Bible properly, then, you must first be saved. Every true believer is indwelt and illumined by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13-14). Have you repented of your sin and trusted in Jesus alone to save you from sin and death, and to give you a right relationship with God? Such salvation is both the primary goal of Bible interpretation and the first step to proper interpretation. From there, you must depend on the Spirit to grow your understanding of the Bible; help you apply it to your life and live it out; and take you deeper into a loving, transformative, worshipful relationship with God.

How? Start with prayer. Pray for spiritual insight every time you open your Bible, like Paul in Ephesians 1:15-19 or the psalmist in Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction.” And after you’ve understood something, thank God for that gift.

Also, approach the Bible humbly. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). He declares, “I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). Specifically, do your best to set aside your preconceptions and let the Bible speak for itself. Don’t twist the Bible to fit what you want to believe, and don’t imagine you have it all figured out. As J. I. Packer remarks, “Confidence in one’s own powers of discernment is an effective barrier to spiritual understanding…. God’s book does not yield up its secrets to those who will not be taught of the Spirit. Our God-given textbook is a closed book till our God-given Teacher opens it to us.”[1]

Finally, live a holy life. How can you expect the Holy Spirit to teach you if you grieve him with an unholy life (Ephesians 4:30)? But if you’re seeking to obey the Bible that the Holy Spirit wrote, he will gladly teach you and transform you to live a life pleasing to him.

Interpret Diligently

How does the Spirit give us understanding? Do we pray, and then the Spirit downloads information into our brains from heaven? Do we sleep with our Bible under our pillow and absorb it by osmosis overnight? The answer is a lot less mystical than you might think. As we depend on the Spirit, he grants us understanding through the channel of our diligent effort.

Let’s eavesdrop on Paul’s instruction to Timothy. Timothy must depend on Jesus’ grace, and he also must work hard like a soldier, athlete, and farmer (2 Timothy 2:1-6). Then Paul says, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (7). Timothy had to consider Paul’s teaching, and the Lord would grant him understanding. This especially applied to Timothy’s ministry of God’s Word. Paul told him, “Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth” (15).

As a pastor, I can testify to the reality of these verses. Every time I work on a sermon, I pray for the Spirit to help me understand whatever passage I’m going to preach, and I often don’t understand certain details until the Spirit enlightens me. And every week, I have to study for hours and hours in order to interpret, apply, and proclaim a passage.

This doesn’t apply to preachers only. It’s true for anyone who wants to understand the Bible. Again, J. I. Packer says, “Not that the Spirit’s presence in men’s hearts makes patient study of the text unnecessary. The Spirit is not given to make Bible study needless, but to make it effective.”[2] To interpret the Bible properly, you must depend on the Spirit and diligently study. These are not at odds. Dependence on the Spirit and diligent effort go hand-in-hand.

Does this mean you need to study the Bible for hours every day? No, but it does mean repeatedly reading the Bible. It means meditating on passages and pondering their meaning with other believers. It means writing down questions and researching answers. It means belonging to a church that teaches you the Bible. It means worshiping God as you learn more about him, and seeking to apply the Bible’s teaching to your daily life.

You can’t do this on your own; you must depend on the Spirit. And you can’t be passive; you must diligently work. Interpret the Bible with dependent diligence.

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[1] J. I. Packer, “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982, p. 112.

[2] Ibid.