The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted a glaring weakness in humanity. We live with the mistaken notion that we have something: control. Despite our wisdom, scientific acumen, and technological progress, the world has been brought to its knees by an enemy we cannot see.
For those of us with religious convictions, it has led us to focus again on the One who is in control. Our attention has rightly turned to God and His word, which is forever true and forever unchanging (1 Pet. 1:24–25). Many believers have welcomed our need to lean on God and set our sights on Scripture.
While this refocus is right, we should remind ourselves to practice proper interpretive principles. When we read Scripture, we should strive to understand what God is saying. There’s no benefit to reading the Bible if we unintentionally miss the meaning of the text. Holy-Spirit-inspired transformation can only occur if we correctly understand (and apply) what God is communicating to us.
Recently, I started teaching an online series (on Facebook) on how to interpret the Bible. If you have a Facebook account, you can join me live on Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. (PT). In each episode, I teach an interpretive principle and then walk through a biblical passage that has been commonly misinterpreted. I explain how the principle exposes the error and guides the reader to the correct meaning.
The first three episodes are here, here, and here.
If you don’t have a Facebook account, the first two episodes are on YouTube here and here. (See the first episode below.) Keep following Stand to Reason’s YouTube channel as we release additional episodes.