EP 4 How to Read the Bible

Could understanding the true essence of the Bible transform your faith journey? Join me, Shannon, in Episode 4 of the Forgiven Once for All podcast, as we explore the delicate balance between the living word and the written word of God. We promise you'll come away with practical insights on how to approach the Bible, avoiding common pitfalls like taking verses out of context or using scripture as a weapon. Instead, we'll guide you on how to let the living word of Jesus flow through your reading, bringing true revelation and inspiration to your Christian walk.

In this episode, we also delve into the unparalleled historical preservation of the Bible, with over 5,600 fragments and copies standing as a testament to its authenticity. But remember, historical accuracy is just one piece of the puzzle. We'll discuss how to read the Bible effectively by understanding its original context, audience, and cultural background, ensuring that the scriptures guide you to Christ rather than lead to misinterpretation. Let’s embark on this enlightening journey together and rediscover the Bible as our greatest earthly resource, grounding our faith in both the written and living word of God.

Transcript

Welcome to the Forgiven Once for All podcast. My name is Shannon and I have the pleasure of speaking to you today. This is episode four to read your bible. And so in episode three we looked at the history of the new testament scriptures. We looked at how important it was and how the church grew in the beginning. Without the new testament, they only had the New Testament. Many couldn't read, but yet there was an explosive growth in the church, and that was because there's a living word, which is Jesus, that teaches us all things, the Holy Spirit within us.

And so we looked at the growth of the church. We looked at how the Bible, the written word, is our single greatest resource on earth, apart from Jesus himself, who is the living word. We looked at the written word as it is our guide and it births faith and hope. As important as the written word is to us, the living word is much more important. The living word is our lifeline. We are to be attached to Jesus. He says I'm the vine and you were the branches, and we cannot have life without that connection. The Living Word must flow through us if we're gonna have revelation and inspiration and if we're going to be have a true grasp and heart knowledge of christianity. We can have pen and paper and we can create a religion that looks nothing like god, and that's what we've done over the years. Some teachers have used the written word and twisted it and created horrible, horrible versions of religion that they call Christianity, that have nothing to do with God and love and grace and redemption. This is why it's important that we have the living word flowing through us to teach us.

Okay, so the Bible. It is the most historically preserved document ever written. There's over 5,600 fragments and copies, over 5,600 fragments and copies or pieces of original scripture. This is amazing. There's no other book or work or piece of literature that has this much authenticity to it, and that alone is amazing. Authenticity to it, and that alone is amazing. It's amazing that we have such a well-preserved document, but those documents are in a language, as I've stated before, that we don't fully understand. Yes, we have Greek scholars and translators and people that have dedicated their lives, but we do not have anybody that's alive today that was alive at that time. The only person that we do have is Jesus himself. He's the only one that was there when these things were written. He's the only one that was there when these things were written.

So when we go to read the Bible, we must be careful. We must be cautious that we don't make it say something that was never intended to be said. Cs Lewis says it is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the right guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him. We must not use the Bible as some sort of encyclopedia out of which texts can be taken to use as weapons. This is why we must be careful with the written word because, as you've seen, we can make the Bible say anything we want. Say anything we want. If we pick and choose verses and put them together, we can create all kinds of religions. This is what has been done. This is why people today are so confused about Christianity, because we have not drawn from the living word, but we've twisted the written word and turned it into weapons to prove our point.

So how are we supposed to read the Bible? The Bible says of itself that we are to rightly divide the word. So how do we read the Bible? Well, the first thing I can tell you is how not to read your Bible. The first thing that you should not do is to read it verse at a time, jumping around often. Don't take verses from one book and verses from another book. This is how confusion is birthed. The second thing we should not do is assume that every verse is written to you and applies to you. Not every verse was written to you.

We've got to look at the context of when it was written, who it was written to, what was the author trying to convey? What did it mean to those who heard the message? And the next thing we should not do is to get caught up in word study when what we need is culture or background study. This is where I've been guilty. I love to deep dive into Greek words and their meanings, but if we don't understand the culture and the background and the context that those words were used, we're making a mistake. So how should we read our Bible? Read chapters and books, not verses. Read the whole book. Get the whole context of what's being said. Read it in multiple translations. Don't just stick to one translation. Not one translation we have is perfect. I like to focus on a book and I'll read it in the New American Standard. Then I might read it in the Message and then I might read it in. There's so many other good translations. Some are paraphrased, some are literal, some are general translations, and you can get an idea by looking at the whole context of the scripture, not verse by verse, but book by book or chapter by chapter. Identify who the scripture is written to. This is important. Many people assume that the scripture is written to them and there's definitely value there for us and lessons that we can draw. But who was the scripture written to 2,000 years ago? Who was the audience? Who was the audience? What was the author trying to convey to that audience at that time? What did it mean to the recipients, to those that received that letter and it was read to them? What did it mean to them? At what time were the words spoken? Was it before or after the cross? Before the cross was old covenant. The new covenant was ratified at the cross and it's a whole new covenant. It's a whole new era. It's a whole new message that is being conveyed. The Old Testament was law and works, and the law was to show us what sin was. And no matter how many laws we made, we could not complete it all, we could not be righteous and that we needed a savior. And then, at the cross, our savior came, and now we have the new covenant, where Christ paid for our sin and purchased redemption and new life. And now we read scripture from the point of grace and the point of love and redemption. And another thing we need to consider is that scripture was written to three different groups. It was either written to the Jews, the Gentiles or the church. Those are the three groups that we can identify. So how do we get the most out of the written word? You take a look at all these things we've mentioned who it's written to and you draw the lessons, try to put yourself in their shoes, to understand what it meant to them. And the most important thing that we can do as we are reading the written word, is to communicate with the living word. As you read, the Bible testifies and points us to Jesus. Many things were written for us but are not to us. I want you to understand that there's things that were written for you, for your benefit, for your edification, but were not written to you. This is a lesson that we need to learn in the church in 2024, and the last thing we need to do is. We need to read scripture from a Christocentric lens. We need to take off the lens that we have of our denomination, take off the lens of our preconceived notions, take off the lenses that we use, that are from our traditions or our backgrounds or what we've always heard heard, and take those lens away and put on glasses that only see Jesus, that see it from a Jesus point of view. Jesus is the word and the word is about Jesus. It testifies of him, and so when we read scripture from a Jesus point of view, what it says about him, what it says about the father, and while we're communicating with the living word, this is how the Bible will be opened up to you and explode in new meaning and revelation. This is how we should read our Bible. We should read it and to see what it says about Jesus, and also we can see what Jesus says about us and how we can be more like him. We can be more like Him Not through works, but through redemption. I hope this helped you today and I want you to remember God is madly in love with you Until next time. Thank you, you.