Pastor's Blog: Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
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This past week has seen no shortage of commentary regarding the remarks of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to an audience in Fort Wayne, Indiana, comprised largely of law enforcement officers. What landed Attorney General Sessions in hot water was his application of a passage in Romans 13, regarding submission to the governing authorities, to the current controversy over the administration’s immigration policy.
The decidedly harsh pushback from the faith community, including strong evangelical supporters of the administration, has no doubt made the AG regret the fact that he did not consult members of his evangelical base before offering his interpretation of the Apostle Paul’s words as justification for administration policy. But now that he has spoken publicly on the matter, the words are out there to be analyzed and criticized and they cannot be taken back. Such is the peril of speaking publicly. No one knows better about that than I do.
I don’t know that I can offer anything on the Attorney General’s remark that hasn’t already been said. I can, however, offer some perspective on how his comments should raise our attention on the use of Scripture in everyday life. Just because the Bible says something that we want it to say doesn’t mean that the passage we chose and the interpretation we gave to it are infallible truths. As a Baptist, I will defend with my last breath the right of every believer to interpret the Bible as the Spirit leads him or her to do. But I am also quick to say that my interpretations must always follow sound interpretive principles and, even then, are often made stronger when compared to how the Holy Spirit is inspiring other believers on a particular passage of Scripture.
The theological word for this area of interpretation is called “hermeneutics” (which comes from the Greek, “to interpret”). First-year seminarians are taught the classic principles of this biblical science, which include the following concerns:
- What is the context (background) of a given text? How do other passages that surround a given text influence its interpretation? Where does a particular text fit in terms of the larger book of which it is a part?
- What is the original setting behind the text? What circumstances led to the Spirit’s inspiring a Bible author to deliver that particular word to a particular community of faith?
- How is the text informed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Ultimately, Jesus is the criterion by which every passage of Scripture should be interpreted.
There are a host of other concerns that fall under this category of biblical hermeneutics, concerns which deal with genres, theologies, word studies, and the like. But for an informed reading of any text that then leads to faithful application in contemporary life (what is called “the hermeneutical leap”) these three questions offer a good start. They keep us from reading our agendas into a text (which is called “eisegesis”) instead of distilling God’s truth out of it (which is called “exegesis”).
I trust you will consider these interpretive questions carefully. They are more than just the concerns of a “professional.” They also apply to everyone who wants to live in a way that is consistent with Scripture and keeps one in the center of God’s will. When you think about it, perhaps that’s what being a professional is really all about.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).