How would you feel if someone misinterpreted what you said? Well, that's what has happened with the Bible.
Transcript
[Darris McNeely] What if you had a message to deliver, and it was delivered, and then someone takes it and turns it completely around, misinterprets it, and says that it means something totally different from what you originally gave and intended it to mean? You know, that’s what’s happened with the Bible. Through the ages, people have taken the word of God and put their own interpretation upon it. They have put their own meaning into it. Whole churches and religious faiths have been built around certain passages or certain interpretations of the Scripture that are far from what God intended and means. It’s a very important principle. We’re in number six in our keys of understanding the Bible, and this is to let the Bible interpret itself. Let the Bible interpret itself. It’s fully capable of doing so.
There’s a passage in 2 Peter 1:20 that says about the Scripture, “No prophecy is of any private interpretation.” No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. Which is true about prophecy and really, doctrine and any other teaching, and many principles of Christian living from the Bible. It is not for us to privately interpret. We must draw out the meaning, but be very careful that you do not read into any part of Scripture your own bias, your own interpretation, your own meaning, or that of your particular faith or background. That’s not how God’s word was given and it is not how it is to be studied.
There’s another principle from the book of Isaiah that teaches us that the Bible is a word, a book that we are to look at in its context and take lines and principles from various passage of Scripture to understand. In Isaiah 28:9, it says, “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the passage? Those just weaned from milk? Or those drawn from the breast? Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Get the context. Read the verses before, after. Read the entire chapter, the entire book, and compare back and forth the seemingly difficult or contradictory passages always have a way of being able to be worked out as the Bible interprets itself. Be patient, and let that be a principle to guide you in studying the Bible, and you will find yourself be richly rewarded as a result. Let the Bible interpret itself.
