Have you ever heard people saying, “Well, this is the way I interpret it.”
Then you ask, “The way you interpret what?”
They reply, “The way I interpret the word of God.”
The word of God?
Can you believe that? As if the Word of God is up for any kind of interpretation, for anyone to take it in any way they want to, people say, “the way I interpret it.”
Isn’t that scary?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. . .” (John 1:1, 14)
So, according to the Gospel of John, the word of God is Jesus Christ Himself.
If so, how can I define and interpret Jesus Christ the way I want to? Think about it.
When we interpret “the word of God” in whatever way we want, we miss the spiritual “food” or “nutrition” or “knowledge” God has prepared for us to have in His word so we grow in Christ Jesus. Our spiritual growth comes from what we know from the truth of God.
When we “know the truth,” we will be set free. Just like a baby, as he grows, he stops crawling on the floor. He will be set free from walking on four legs.
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
But if we have no biblical “knowing” or knowledge, we live in all kinds of bondage. We go to church, get involved in ministries but we live in hidden sins because truth doesn’t abide in us, we have absolutely no conviction about what the word of God teaches. We may look spiritual from the outside but we have little or no spiritual depth.
No spiritual depth or growth means, we are infants! We usually cry, whine and complain about everything. We think the whole world is revolving around us and we think that God’s main business is to wipe our tears when we cry and change our soiled diapers.
John MacArthur writes in his latest book, “Final Word” – subtitle: Why we need the Bible: “the absence of biblical knowledge retards spiritual thinking and slows spiritual growth.”
Wow! Retarded spiritual thinking and growth!
The solution is for the word of God itself to give interpretation of its own word and to grow in that knowledge/interpretation. ///