No private interpretation II Meat and Milk.

What I was saying last day is that if we want to understand what is intended when we read the Bible, we must firstly approach the Scriptures with a childlike humility, looking to learn and to understand, rather than looking for excuses to dismiss it, or to use it to justify our already existing positions. The secrets of the Kingdom are given to those who are truly seeking. Secondly the Bible has a central theme/message /purpose which when received by faith is clear. Outside of this central message, there are things that are difficult to understand, and require much careful work and study. There is the milk of the Word and there is the is meat of the Word. Thirdly we are not to engage in private interpretations of the Bible. There are checks balances and discernments that the Bible itself requires we take. Even the Apostle Paul checked out his teaching with the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem (See Galatians 2:1-2). Today I want to say a bit more about the second point. In particular the essentials are clear when we come in faith and humility (the milk of the Word), but some things are hard to understand (the meat of the Word).

One of the characteristics of a cult (a religious movement or group sharing certain highly unorthodox (read wrong) religious beliefs), is that they claim that they are right and everybody else is wrong. Of course, not every group that takes this stand is necessarily unorthodox in the majority or even the most important, aspects of their teachings. But if they claim in black and white that “We are right and everybody else is wrong”, then they are incorrect at least in this statement. Paul puts it this way “And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know”. He also says that “We know in part,...” (1 Corinthians 8:2; 13:12).

So then can we be confident of nothing? There are two groups of Scriptures that we need to take into account, to hold in tension, and to discern how to apply. Paul certainly does not mean we are to be wishy washy in the essentials of the Faith, since he also tells us that we need to beware lest we become like those who are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). The writer to the Hebrew tells us that faith is “ being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

So then there are two sets of Scriptural references which at first sight seem to contradict each other. The unbeliever will seize on such things and tell you “See the Bible contradicts itself”. Let me say what I said last day in a slightly different way. We will not be able to understand the Bible if we look at it through the eyes of unbelief. If we are childlike as in curious and humble we will ask “What am I missing here?”

I dealt with another example of this need to balance teachings in my December post “Salvation by Faith, Assurance by Works I”. What I am saying is that over and over we will find Scriptures that need to be held in tension. More often than not, the solution is to understand them as both and, rather than either or. For me the resolution of the two sets of Scriptural references we are considering today is easy. We are I believe being told on the one hand that we can have assurance of the essentials of the faith of the things that pertain to salvation. But we need to be careful that we do not give pat and shallow answers to complex questions on the other. I remember one Pastor I challenged on this last point. “Well the congregation wants simple answers”, he said. I suppose it saves us the bother of having to think, and to think deeply. But as I said last day, the Scriptures are so simple a child can understand them, but deep enough to drown an elephant. If we are to love the Lord with all our minds (Matthew ), we need to avoid pat and shallow answers in the “meat” of the Word.

If you are a babe in Christ, you can relax. Ask the Lord to guide you and then to drink, and drink and drink from the Word. The Lord will guide you, and show you when you need to take more notice of the deeper things we need to consider as we grow up in Christ. You don't feed steak to a baby. In 1 Peter 2:2 new converts are admonished “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby”. In other words as a baby is greedy for milk from its mother's breast, the newly born Christian should be greedy for the nurture of the Word as he or she reads. If this is you, I say to you what I was told as a baby Christian “Get your nose into God's feedbag” - His Word. Read the Word, feed on the Word, believe the Word, do the Word.