God’s Word is full of exciting stories, godly wisdom, stories of great success, and letters from men who spent their lives serving the risen Jesus. This text is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, and correction (2 Tim. 3:16–17). But how often is it quickly abused?
We often see people throwing around Scripture as a weapon, trying to cut people down, disprove a certain individual, or teach a personal agenda to anyone who is willing to listen. This creates a huge discrepancy for those who genuinely try to teach the truth according to the Bible, especially when the image of Christians is damaged by those who misuse Scripture. So, how do we as Christians ensure that we are teaching the truth from God’s Word instead of abusing it?
There are three things we need to keep in mind:
1. We must not drag our religious baggage into the text as we study.
Studying with preconceived ideas or ideologies can negatively affect any Bible study. One of the biggest examples of this is the idea that belief alone saves. We see that John 3:16 says that whoever believes will have eternal life, and some people will abuse and isolate this text to teach that belief alone is all that is necessary for salvation. The danger of this comes when people have to reconcile that belief with verses like Acts 2:38 and 1 Peter 3:21, which teach about the necessity of baptism in relation to salvation.
2. We must ensure that we study Scripture in the context in which it was written.
When examining Scripture, we cannot allow ourselves to read passages from the prophets or from Revelation and then impose a 21st-century ideology onto the text in order to make a man-made idea seem possible. There are many people who try to “help prepare people for the end times” by manipulating Scripture to tell us what it will be like when the world ends. These people often make unscriptural arguments by taking passages out of context. We can protect ourselves from falling victim to these teachings by making sure we understand the context in which a passage was written and what the original author intended to communicate.
3. We must not allow personal Bible study to be overlooked because we have listened to a Bible lesson or read someone else’s commentary.
Daily Bible reading should never be neglected, nor should we allow someone else to do our studying for us. As Christians, we should be searching the Scriptures daily, just like the Bereans, who were commended because they examined the Scriptures daily to see whether what they were being taught was true (Acts 17:11). Commentaries, books, sermons, and Bible classes can all be valuable tools, but they should never replace our personal study of God’s Word.
When becoming a disciple of Jesus, we must accept that studying under our Teacher requires hard and intentional work. But when we approach Scripture correctly, that study can permanently better our lives and provide us with the godly wisdom we need to live according to God’s standards.
Christian Cherry
Dalraida church of Christ is a congregation of Christians that meet in the mid-town area of Montgomery, Alabama. Our goal and purpose is to seek and follow God and His Word in everything that we do in life.