What does it mean for Christian to correctly handle Bible verses?
Q: Last year, you showed us how to systematically study the Bible; what does it mean for Christian to correctly handle Bible verses?
A: It has been said that, “Correctly handling Bible verses is the ‘building Block’ of understanding Scripture: we memorize verses, but we need to keep them in the content of the chapter.” For example, 1 Timothy 4:10, states, “That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” We know that The Epistles of Paul to Timothy, was Apostle Paul’s final letters to the church, before the guillotine execution by the Roman Emperor Nero. Let’s examine this verse for its true meaning.
“We put our hope in the living God:” shouldn’t this be the hallmark of every Christian? Our [biblical] hope in the living God enables us to accomplish great things for His glory. The great 18th century Theologian, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “But our God, in whom we trust, is a God with a great, warm, loving heart, a thinking God, an active God, a working, personal God, who comes into the midst, of this world, and does not leave it to go on by itself.
The Savior of all men:” The emphasis here is on the word ‘Savior’ – who is Christ Jesus. Without further examining the verse, in light of other Scriptures, one would come away with the ‘universalism belief’ that God desires to save all men. If that was the case, then the question becomes, how can a perfect, righteous, and Holy God, deny Himself, of anything in which He desires – because He knows best. The verse is saying that Christians don’t have one Savior and there’s one for everyone else; but that there is only one Savior for all men. Those that perish, perish through their own fault.
Some verses are similar in text – but meaning/application is a little different: for example Luke 6:36-38, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
In many local churches, this verse is used for encouraging the congregation to give financially – but it’s actually talking about forgiveness and judging others. Bible scholars and commentaries reveal that Jesus was encouraging Christians to have the freedom to give without fearing that they will become the loser in their giving. He wanted to set them free from the fear that they were giving too much. And when you interpret these verses in light of what Jesus was trying to convey to His disciples, the real application of this in context is not so much the giving of material resources, but with giving love, blessing, and forgiveness. We are never the loser when we give those things based on the pattern of God’s generosity.
And the phrase, “Men will give into your bosom,” Theologian William Barclay, give a vivid picture of what it means based on Jewish history. “The Jew wore a long loose robe down to the feet, and round the waist a girdle. The robe could be pulled up so that the bosom of the robe above the girdle formed a kind of outsize pocket in which things could be carried. So the modern equivalent of the phrase would be, ‘People will fill your pocket.’”
The verse is saying, God will measure unto us according to the same measure we use for others. This should be the motivation for us to be generous with love, forgiveness, and goodness to others. If we want more of those things from God, we should give more of them to others.
Correctly handling Bible verses, simply means, don’t take a verse of Scripture, and make it say what YOU’VE heard that it meant, without searching the Scriptures, as well as other sound biblical resources, that have withstood the test over time, to determine, if the things you’ve heard are correct.