Bible Study – Part 4
July 21, 2002
Dear Friends,
The Pharisees and their ilk were Bible students without peer in their day. Yet, the Scripture records that “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” They were of that class of people that the Bible says are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7) Jesus himself rebuked their approach to Bible study when he said “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me.” (John 5:39 NASB) In other words, the Pharisees were avid Bible students, but with their self-righteous attitudes and Bible trivia mentality, they had overlooked the most important point of all — their need for redemption through the coming Messiah. Here in plain view of these Bible students was the culmination of scores of Bible prophecy and yet this escaped the attention of their hardened hearts.
With this powerful lesson provided by these wicked men, we should avoid adopting a “Bible trivia” mentality. We have a Bible trivia mentality when we lose the true message of the Bible in all of the details. Those competing with Jesus had done just that. Jesus speaks to them saying “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” The scribes and Pharisees were meticulous in details of the Law without realizing most important aspects that the Scripture taught. These men transformed themselves outwardly with great shows of piety, but the Word of God did not work on their hearts.
One suggestion I have to avoid this problem is to first understand the book before you understand the chapters and understand the chapters before you understand the verses. In other words, take a walk around the forest and get a lay of the land before you start looking at individual trees or worse yet leaves on individual trees. So many times I have seen Bible classes jump into a verse by verse analysis of a book before they have a understanding of the whole. It is very possible to take things in context if you have no idea what the context is. I recommend reading a book many times (and usually out of several translations) before embarking on a verse by verse study.
A case in point is the verse I quoted earlier. “Search the Scriptures” from John 5 has been used in many an exhortation to induce others to Bible study when, in fact, its context is brings out another message altogether. Is it wrong to take a verse like this and wrest it from its context to use it for our purposes? I would suggest that it is. In another oft wrested Scripture, we find the answer to our previous question. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15 NASB) “Handling accurately the word of truth” states clearly the manner in which we should interpret the word of God — accurately. One of the great ironies of this verse is that it too is often mishandled. The King James uses some archaic language in this verse and starts the verse as follows: “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” The NASB and other translations have accurately translated this as “be diligent to” “or do your best to” rather than “study to.” The true exhortation of this verse is to do your best to be an approved workman of God which is defined as someone has no reason to be ashamed and accurately uses the Scriptures. The irony is that in insisting on the archaic translation of “study to show thyself approved” we are not accurately using the Scriptures.
Bible study can be a joy and a life-changing experience. We are uniquely positioned in the history of the world to have such wide and open access to the Word of God. Let us follow the example of the psalmist who wrote: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” (Ps. 119:14-16)
Have a great week!
