What Does That Mean?

Have you ever read a passage in the Bible and wondered what it meant? Sure, all of us have. There are things that are said in Scripture that require a little digging to understand. “Exegesis” is a word used to describe a careful study of Scripture to discover the original and intended meaning of what was written. You’ve probably heard someone say, “Back in those days...” when referring to something Paul said to a congregation. Exegesis tries to overcome the gaps between an ancient text and modern understandings. There’s a reason we don’t feel compelled to “greet one another with a holy kiss” (1 Peter 5:14, Romans 16:16), or bring out the foot-washing basin when we have someone over to the house (John 13:14). Exegesis can help us understand why we don’t literally pluck out our right eye or cut off our right hand if they cause us to sin (Matthew 5:29-30). 

2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” In Acts 18:26, Aquila and Priscilla used some kind of exegetical model to help Apollos understand “the way of God more accurately.”

Occasionally, we’ll come across passages that really leave us scratching our heads: “For this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.” (1 Corinthians 11:10). Although there may be many speculations, good exegesis takes into account the overall theme and purpose of God’s inspired word for us. We should feel confident that God wants us to know His will, which includes repentance, following Him, being clothed with Christ, and loving our neighbor, just to name a few things. 

So, does God intend for us to understand passages like 1 Corinthians 11:10? Yes, but with maturity. Perhaps we need to also consider there are things in the Bible we don’t really need to know at this time. Eve sought knowledge that wasn’t helpful to her walk with God (literally), David sought after knowledge that was harmful to his kingdom in 1 Chronicles 21 when he took the census. In both of these examples (Genesis 3 and 1 Chronicles 21) the reader can understand by looking deeper into the text that God wanted them to be grateful and content with what they had. 

It takes a lot of wisdom to slow down and try to grasp the bigger picture before we start detailing it out. Studying God’s Word can seem overwhelming, but when you remember this is His message to help reveal what He’s looking for in us, that can make a big difference. Remember these words from Paul in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

God of Risks

Financial advisors often ask their clients about their risk tolerance. Risk tolerance is defined as the acceptable level of loss of any particular asset (time, money, reputation, etc.) a person is willing to take. People who are risk-averse do everything in their power to not subject any part of their life to loss. While that may be responsible, it's not realistic. We are constantly surrounded by risks, some more detrimental than others, but the challenge is understanding when a risk is unnecessary. 

Have you ever considered the many risks God has taken with mankind, and that He asks us to take as well? From the very beginning, God took a risk by creating a being with free will that could rebel. Even beyond that, of all the people in the world, He chose the Israelites as a people to call His own. Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath, He swore to your ancestors…” Or the multiple times He chose the weakest, youngest, most insignificant people to be His messengers, prophets, and most inspirational people. Not to mention His choice of the apostles! He knew all of these risks and their outcomes before He even began, yet this shows you what He thinks about taking a long shot. 

Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” And yet, He took the risk. Time after time Jesus invested in those the world said were not worth the risk. His bold actions proved He wasn’t concerned about staying within His social group or encountering opposition. In fact, Jesus modeled very well the statement we read about many times in scripture, “Be strong and courageous and do not be afraid, the Lord your God goes with you wherever you go” 

It wasn’t just risks in getting God’s message to His creation; it was eventually asking the creation to continue the sharing of the promise of God to all those people in the world. His great commission speaks of going out into the “unknown” parts of the world, “...into all the world…”, therefore, as we realize we’ve been made in the image of God, then we realize we must act as God acts—and He is bold. Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power…” Perhaps it's the command seen in 1 Peter 5:6 that seems to be the riskiest move for us, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” Humility is risky; it makes us vulnerable, but it's an essential part of being with God in eternity (1 Peter 5:5, Proverbs 3:34). Being humble is completely in your power, and it’s through that act that we see great rewards. 

Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.” His risk is our reward!

Culture of Christ's Mission

What’s the hardest thing about starting something new? Fear of failure? For many folks, starting something new means there is an entirely new set of rules, norms, customs, relationships, etc., that have to be considered in order to be successful. While starting new things can be exciting for some, it’s scary for many others. However, like most things, the more you do it (experience), the more you feel comfortable with what you’re doing and who it’s with. 

In Hebrews 5:11-14, we’re reminded that there is a point when we should be able to share this message or encourage others with the truth about Jesus. “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” 

We have a responsibility to share this good news with the world (Matthew 28:19-20). After all, that’s how the kingdom of God began (people spreading the good news about it), and as Paul says in Romans 10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” 

As Christianity declines in the U.S., we need to ask why. How much of the neglect of the good news is because we don’t try? Or, how much of it is because we don’t know how to express it to a culture that we’re not used to? 

Communicating truth to a culture that doesn’t believe in truth seems challenging, but is it impossible? The early Christians had their own cultural obstacles to overcome in order to teach and preach the good news. Paul knew he was speaking primarily to people of the Greek-thinking culture. They didn’t think in the monotheistic Judaism model that the Jews did. Those teachers of the truth would have to learn how to communicate with the Hellenistic culture of those influenced by the Roman empire. So do we. No excuses! 

1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” 

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…” (Hebrews 10:24). This may end up thinking of fresh, new ideas in order to accomplish it. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

Inspiration

One of the fundamentals of Christianity is believing the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, and His sacrifice for our sins. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The gospel (good news) is revealed to us through the Bible. If we didn’t have anything written down about the events that led up to Jesus fulfilling the promises of God, we wouldn’t have a very reliable understanding of what defines the good news. “By this gospel, you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.... According to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:2-4). We have been given the written accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry to help give us confidence in his claims to be the savior of the world, the only way to achieve eternal life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Yet, upon this fundamental fact that God’s words outline His will for us, we see such misunderstanding or complete ignorance about how to use the teaching, or the rebukes, or the correcting, or being trained in righteousness; and we see how that has impacted our culture. Therefore, an important question we must ask is, “Do I believe ALL of these words are from the Creator?”

The word inspiration (God-breathed) becomes the focus of this dilemma. One definition of the word is, “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” Others might focus on this influencing and motivating power being based on God ﹘ divinely imparting His will so we can know what to do. 

Peter says in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

1 Corinthians 2:12-13, “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”

Many people have difficulty understanding how the Bible helps them with personal problems now, which brings inspiration into question. While many believe in the idea of the Bible being inspired, they live as if they have to still search elsewhere to find solutions to their problems. The Bible is filled with hundreds of examples of people rejecting or accepting God’s teaching (through prophets, priests, or kings), His rebukes (2 Samuel 12), His correcting (Hebrews 12:9-11), or His training towards righteousness (Hebrews 5:14; John 13:13-15; 1 Peter 2:21). But, just like Eve should have used discernment to determine if what the snake was telling her was true or not, we too have to seek discernment to understand the essence of the Biblical examples and teachings we read. This takes being mature, “...solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Paul's Persuasion

Luke 1:68-79 records a praise from Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, for seeing how he never should have doubted God’s blessing of a child. God is faithful! His situation reminds us of Abraham and Sarah and their lack of children to carry on their family line. Just as the history of God’s people really begins with Abraham and continues throughout the Israelite’s continued disbelief in his promises, the Gospel of Luke picks up with a similar theme, and yet that’s where the “good news” comes in. 

Zechariah’s name means “The Lord has Remembered.” Yet it was really Zechariah who had forgotten God’s ability to fulfill His promises. As a priest, Zechariah was familiar with the rituals of worship, but apparently, he wasn’t persuaded of God’s power. However, after several months of silence, he was persuaded that God had not forgotten them. John, his son, would be the forerunner for the Messiah—Immanuel, “God with us.” 

Sometimes in our lives, we need persuasion to accept the hand of God in our lives. It’s easy to focus on the negative, or the fearful, or the failures of ourselves or the people around us, but God has demonstrated that there is no power able to keep Him from doing what He said He would do. 

Romans 8:31-39, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies... (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

When you read through Luke’s effort to persuade Theophilus to either follow Jesus (or have more understanding of who he is following), we can see some amazing parallels that pull Theophilus, or any reader, back to the motif (design patterns) of God fulfilling His promise way back in the Old Testament. Throughout that effort to persuade us to trust Him, Satan constantly tries to put obstacles in the way of us understanding this. “We are not ignorant of His schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). 

The goal of the Gospel accounts is to help us see how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise, and that by believing in Him, there is hope for tomorrow. “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies…” (Luke 1:68-71).