Two sources of understanding the Bible.
As I see there are two types of understanding or interpreting of the Bible:
1. a revelation from God, and 2. people deduce things from the Bible on their own.
The second one, people’s own deductions and interpretations, that is not interesting to me, as its very likely far from truth that God intended to convey.
I heard someone say that satan cannot touch the Word of God, so satan tries to twist people’s interpretation.
I agree that when people deduce or interpret and study on their own, without God, without the Holy Spirit, they can easily be misled and write big dissertations, but may actually get farther away from the truth.
I have listened to a few debates where an atheist says he read the Bible, but found proof in it against God, found contradictions, found incongruences, and so on. In those cases reading the Bible didn’t bring the person closer to God, seed was sown by the road, or in the thorns, and didn’t bring any fruit. But that is ‘the world’ with people who are not born again.
The interesting question to me is how can true Christians, children of God, be reading the same Bible, same Word of God, and receive different revelations from the Holy Spirit, different application of the same verse.
And is this ok?
Let’s talk about this.
God’s wisdom VS world’s wisdom.
God’s wisdom is not like the world’s wisdom, because God’s wisdom is living wisdom, and the world’s wisdom stems from the past experience.
God’s wisdom works in your particular situation at a particular time and is not depended on the past.
Yes, God’s principles transcend time and situations, but I’m talking about application of those principles, about guidances in a certain situation.
World (people that are not born again, didn’t confess that Jesus is the Lord, do not believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, do not need Jesus for salvation, do not seek God, etc), again, world offers experience, and how to apply that experience.
A person from the world has seen many situations, knows many things, and defines wisdom as ‘knowledge applied’ – they have seen the past, they know the situation, now they see what fits, and how to behave in a current situation.
God’s ways are much much different. God knows principles and best ways to apply them, as He created it all, and He also creates new ways and new applications for those principles, He doesn’t just use what worked in the past and what didn’t.
So God’s wisdom is not ‘knowledge applied’ from experience, but the perfect instruction and application for every particular situation and for any case and for every person – now.
That is why it was impossible to catch Jesus with trick questions no matter how pharisees and other teachers of the law tried, Jesus didn’t seek for answers in the past but relied on Holy Spirit to give Him the answer for the situation now, while the ‘askers’ sought unanswerable questions from the past experience and observations.
Jesus didn’t dig in the previous schools of thought or answer found in the past, but sought the Holy Spirit’s living wisdom.
Living wisdom of God is always fitting, always timely, always the best answer and the best application, and is always for right now.
Not for the past but for now.
That is the introduction, and a good thought in itself. But the question posed here is why do people read the same verse but receive a different revelation and a different application. Shouldn’t it be all the same, as there is only one truth and it comes form one Spirit?
Bible says that we should try to understand what is pleasing to God (Ephesians 5:10).
Your honest search will yield you a certain understanding and a revelation of God and of His will, and you are responsible for that.
That is what God will ask of you. Not Fred’s result of that search nor Wu’s, but yours, the one that Holy Spirit revealed to you in your search.
Is your revelation really from God.
(I must make a disclaimer here.
Be very careful when you receive a revelation and check if its authentic and is from God. Getting your own revelation can be an excuse for fleshly things, or even bring deception into the body of Chris.
A few warning signs that revelation is not from God but from your flesh or even from satan can be: a revelation that contradicts the Bible as a whole or contradicts teaching of Christ, if the revelation contradicts the teaching of your parents and teaching of your church, revelation could be wrong if it contradicts the understanding of people in your life that are spiritually more mature than you. If any of these things are present, be careful and bring it back to God to confirm the revelation, and confirm with other authorities in the body of Christ.
We have the power to bring all thoughts in submission and captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:5-6), do don’t accept just anything.
Yes there are exceptions of a revelation that is new to everyone, and if you are sure that you are the exception and you do have a revelation that is completely new, then follow what Paul did when he got a massive revelation that others didn’t have yet (Gal. 1:15-23, 24) and notice how the passage says that they glorified God because of Paul, and they didn’t glorify Paul.
If your ‘everything-contradicting’ revelation or a revelation that is new to all, doesn’t bring glory to God but to you, I can guarantee that that is not a revelation from God.
But if you are honest before God, and open only to God, and spend time with God, and know God and His voice, and revelation you receive doesn’t contradict the Bible and the Gospel we received and were saved by, then you got to stick to that revelation. You are responsible for it.
Whew! Hopefully you got the message of the disclaimer.)
What is a hand?
Ok, but back to the question why different people understand the same verse differently?
God’s Word is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12), it is not stale nor stagnant.
If we liken a certain verse or a chapter of the Bible to a hand that is alive and active, we can get a better understanding.
One’s hand can draw for one person, cook for another, pull another out of a pit, defend a family, build a boat, caress a child, discipline, write a book, etc.
And when you ask different people to explain what is a hand and what a hand does based only on their experience, we will have a collection of different functions they have experienced, and some will agree while others disagree.
Some have experienced one action of the hand, others had multiple encounters. But they are all correct in their own situations.
A hand does all those things and is all those things and is applied in all those ways.
The same way a certain verse or a passage or a book from the Bible may have rescued one person from an addiction, and helped gain joy for another, and helped renew love for a spouse for a third, and fourth gained more understanding of who God is (ex. 1 John 4:16), and all four may say that that verse carries a different meaning, but its based on their experience, and based on how the Holy Spirit revealed to them God’s love and showed them on how to apply that knowledge: for one to be free of an addiction, another gain joy, etc.
So God reveals the facet of the meaning of a verse to a person as needed for them at that time.
Later God may reveal more from the same verse.
We have read the same verse now and then some years later discovered a new meaning and new application. That’s because God is showing us a new function of that verse and it’s not a new truth, it was always in that verse, but it’s new to us; someone may have experienced it already, but I just experienced it now.
And defending this truth and meaning of this verse is my responsibility, because it was given by God for me.
I will answer before God for applying the passage to my life as revealed, and I will answer for sharing it as revealed.
But am I responsible before God for the revelation another had received, but which God didn’t give me? I don’t think so.
That understanding may come in the future, but not yet.
And if you did hear an understanding of the verse from someone and it is different or contradicts what you got in the past, then bring it to God, ask God if this is a use you should apply or discard.
Develop that kind of a relationship with God.
To get your own understanding from God, or take a shortcut?
Ok, here is another point.
Now we have a certain revelation of a certain verse and we now know how to put our experience into practice and we try to use it to help other people, because it worked for us, but God will use the same verse for a fifth person in ways that we cannot even think and change his or her life!
This is why we rely on God’s revelation to understand the Bible and to apply the Bible into our life, and this is why we need to seek God’s revelation ourselves into our life and daily situations, and not rely on what other people have experienced.
So, why not get living wisdom, and why do we constantly settle for ‘knowledge applied’, for people’s past experience.
We may read a commentary or an article or a book or a sermon to try to understand what God is saying to us through a certain passage, but doing so we are simply looking at authors collection of various understandings of what the verse or passage means, and we may never arrive at the living wisdom hidden in that passage for us personally, into our unique life and unique character and unique situation.
It is good to read commentaries, and to share each others understanding of the Bible and revelations and to write articles and preach sermons, but it is much much better to seek God and read the Bible on your own, so God would get a chance to reveal the truth that you need most, tailored just for you.
And when you are reading or listening to other people’s understanding, bring them to God, ask Him what you should take and what you should discard, have a living relationship with God.
Don’t guess if God likes it or allows it, but find out if He actually does.
Wait for His answer, seek His answer.
Those that seek and knock will find and doors will be opened (Matthew 7:7).
Also don’t accept certain meaning or an application of a verse ‘behind God’s back’, trying to sneak it it to your life hoping it will work, hoping God will approve later.
Come to Him boldly, come to the throne of God’s grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16) and be ready to hear from Him and act as He says.
If you want the truth of prosperity to be true in your life, then come boldly to God and ask Him if this is for you.
And if He says no, millions are not for you, that is not the prosperity I have for you , then boldly accept it and be grateful for what you have (Ecclesiastes 5:18).
Don’t try to sneak it into your life, at the end of the day it will not work anyway if God doesn’t approve it (Psalm 127:1).
And its the same way for many other things: marriage, business, missions, moving, certain jobs, etc.
Whatever it is, build with God, pray to God that you would do things WITH Him, with passion.
Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).
Read Bible with guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Ok.
Seek God on your own and seek His living wisdom in the secret place and you will be led by God Himself.
That is much better than trying to get an understanding from other people’s experience, and we know from experience that other people’s experience seldom works the same in our life, that is why everyone has his and her own story.
But, God wrote one Book that works for everyone and it contains answer for everyone personally!
Read it with guidance of the Holy Spirit!
God bless you all.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to your directly into your situation through this article and may He teach you to rely on instructions and guidance from him directly.
Amen.