Bible Application Suggestion – Make Yourself the Target

I’m a strong advocate of Bible study by the laity, even when such study leads to errors.  In fact, I think making mistakes is an important part of Christian growth.  But there are a number of odd things that can happen when people apply the Bible.  One of the checks on “loony” Biblical application that I use is sharing, which I teach as part of my basic method of Bible study.  Sharing involves not just telling people what you think you have learned, but also listening to them for correction.  It’s OK to disagree, even with an expert.  But it’s a good idea to hear the expert first.

In this post I’m talking specifically about application and how you hear scripture.  I discussed a related topic on my Threads blog today.

My suggestion is simple:  Read the Bible for what corrects you, not for what corrects other people.

There are two parts to this idea.  The first is to read and study the Bible looking for the best possible case that you are wrong.  This may seem perverse to some.  Why not just directly search for the truth?  The problem is that we are rarely able to search objectively for the truth.  Too often we “discover” that the Bible is telling us to believe what we already believed, or to do what we already wanted to do.  Consider how many conflicting answers people get to the question “What wouldJesus do?”

In my very early days of online discussion, in the Compuserve Religion Forum, I once had a debate with someone over the translation and interpretation of Isaiah 45:7.  My set of arguments led to the idea that here God, through the prophet, claims to be the creator of everything.  There is nothing that does not find its source in God.  I still believe that, and hold that the pairs of opposites are intended to convey the whole spectrum.

My opponent was very anxious to argue that God is in no way the author of evil.  Now there is a sense in which I would agree with that as well, while still maintaining that evil is a perversion, not a creation, but nonetheless even evil cannot exist without God.

But the details are not important.  My opponent got the worst of the debate according to those on the sidelines, and one congratulated me on my fine arguments.  At that point pride got the better of me and I told him that it was no great mastery; I could present a better case against myself than my opponent was.

I’m sure you guessed it.  He immediately told me to put up or shut up.  So I put up.  I formulated an argument challenging my own and in the process became much less certain of the low intelligence of those who would take the opposing view.  I didn’t convince myself to change positions, but I both strengthened my own arguments and provided myself a lesson in humility by having to provide possible counter-arguments to a number of my own points.

If you set out to study your pet topic by looking for the best scriptural arguments against it, you may correct against your own biases.

The other part of this is in practice.  Here I suggest this not just for the reasons I mention above, but also because it will help prevent a judgmental attitude.  It will also help you correct your practice according to what you learn.

I would suggest as an example of how we don’t do this the issue of homosexuality in the church.  We live in an age with extra-marital sex is ubiquitous and is often swept under the rug or treated as of little importance.  At the same time we spend a disproportionate amount of time discussion homosexuality.  Perhaps those of us who are heterosexual should look more closely at the texts that apply to us.

To those who might think this latter is a very liberal idea, I must mention that it is not original with me.  I first heard it from a Presbyterian Church in America pastor who was in all ways a conservative, Calvinist evangelical.  He preached it to his congregation.

The problem I see is that while we look diligently for texts that apply to others, we can easily neglect those texts that apply to us personally.  Will you ever need to correct others?  Quite possibly.  But you will be in a much better position to do so if you have allowed yourself to be corrected–repeatedly.

Bible study requires some sort of accountability at all levels.  We need to be willing to be corrected, and the starting point for that is letting God correct us through his word.