How do we Know?
So the king said to him, "How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" (2 Chronicles 18:15 NKJV)
Confidence in the Bible and in the Work of the Holy Spirit
We have a Bible that the Lord says is dependable down to the commas and apostrophes. Peter calls the Word of God living and enduring (1 Peter 1:23-25). God gave us the Bible and He gave us the Holy Spirit who guides us unto all truth (See John 16:13). So why do we have so much trouble understanding the Bible? We have denominations that say the Bible is their standard. However, they teach moral truth and ceremonial truth that I cannot find in the Bible. Those who claim to be saved pick and choose which passages of Scriptures that they want to accept as “Gospel Truth.” They divide the Bible into the essential and nonessential Truth for us today. Many seem to think that Paul’s writings on difficult subjects are cultural and since culture has changed, they set aside passages that no longer suit them. I am glad that Peter has told us that Paul’s writings are to be accepted as Scripture or as Sacred Writings (See 2 Peter 3:16).
Spiritual Understanding
So, what should a person do who really wants to know the mind of God? First, he or she must be saved. Many are studying the Bible today who do not know what it means when the Bible says, Ye MUST be born again (John 3:7)!” They have never been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). Second, he or she must believe that the Bible was written for us common people. The New Testament was not written in classical Greek but in the language of the common man. Much of our ministry today borders on indoctrination rather than being Holy Spirit guided teaching. Indoctrination takes the clear simple passages of Scripture and tells you “what it really means.” It is like getting a letter from someone you love and then having a person who doesn’t know the writer start “reading between the lines” and telling you what the writer really meant. I find it demeaning to listen to some expository preaching. Sometimes, I wonder if the preacher really thinks I can’t read writing. If I walk away from ministry and say, “That makes sense, I am surprised I didn’t see that before,” that is good teaching. If I walk away from teaching and say, “Wow, I would never have understood that on my own,” that probably is not so good. Third, a person should have been enlightened to the truth of God’s Way of Salvation when they trusted Christ. We should be confident that just as the Lord spoke to us then through His word, He can continue to do that as we study the Bible. Obviously, that requires prayer and meditation.
We need to start letting the simple truths explain the difficult ones. We need to make sure we read in context–the context of the chapter, of the book of the Bible and of the Bible itself. When truth in one passage seems to be contradictory to the basic message of the Bible as found in other passages, rest assured that that passage is being misinterpreted. We do need help from preachers and commentaries and dictionaries since we need to understand the customs and language of the times when the Bible was written. But we should make sure that we are convinced of Biblical Truth for ourselves. I am convinced that if we would follow these simple guidelines, we would all come to the same understanding of Biblical Truth and I don’t think there would be so much confusion among believers today.
Ahab
In our passage for today, an ungodly King didn’t need to have a godly prophet tell him what the mind of God was. He knew before Micaiah prophesied what the mind of God was. He knew that the other prophets who were telling him what to say to the king were not telling him the truth. He knew that Micaiah started out telling him what the other prophets had asked him to say rather than telling him the truth. Often, our problem with interpretation is that we don’t really want to know what God has said because what he has said is not what we want to do. In some cases, it is not what we have been taught by religious leaders all our lives. But in our hearts, we often know the truth without needing to read the Bible and without listening to a preacher. The Bible just confirms what our consciences and hearts have already told us.
Teaching Others what God has Taught us
If we are born of the Spirit, if we are open to having our minds changed, if we read our Bibles expecting the plain sense to make sense, I don’t think we will have a problem knowing what the proper interpretation of the Bible is. Then in our public ministry, instead of indoctrinating people, we can share with them truth that the Lord has shared with us in our private study, meditation and prayer time. That kind of ministry will be refreshing, instructive and Biblical. It will also be unifying.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of September 1, 2019