Studying the Bible is a wonderful gift to the growing Christian. It leads to a fresh perspective on the Bible. When you study the Bible, you start to understand what it says.
But understanding is not always easy. It places a burden on the student to hold a position they have uncovered when others around them say something different.
Let me step back for a moment on this topic.
An enormous amount of the content we read on a daily basis is from people how want to tell us what to think. Consider the articles that you read on the internet. Many of then are position pieces designed to push a particular angle.
Likewise many Christians read a steady diet of opinion pieces in the Christian Literature they consume.
I can’t complain about it because as a writer I’ve written books just like that… I Will Sing of My Redeemer is a nostalgic reflection on the great hymns of the faith. No original content – just a way of looking at the lyrics to understand what they have to say.
So don’t get me wrong. I’m not against position pieces per se.
But it’s important to balance what you read so that you’re not ONLY reading position pieces.
What’s the alternative? Studying the Bible for yourself. If you only read books that express author’s opinions you’ll know what the authors think or believe about the Bible. But that’s different from knowing the Bible yourself.
This leads me back to my original point.
Studying the Bible implies a burden. You have to own the results of your study. You have to believe what you have learned. And if you study the Bible very much at all, you’re sure to run into someone who holds a different take on it.
In this moment comes a crisis. Will you trust what you’ve learned? Or will you believe what the other person says?
I’m not saying that you don’t examine the other person’s points and see if there’s something you missed. But you have to be willing to stick to your own study.
Why am I writing about this?
I’m in the throes of this very dilemma myself. Our sermon series at church is about the Sermon on the Mount. This is a text I’ve studied myself multiple times. But my conclusions are different from the pastor in the pulpit.
I’m not certain the applications don’t fit. But the path I use to interpret that text is quite different from what is being preached. So every weekend is a bit of a exegetical exercise to harmonize (or not) what I believe, have studied, understand the text to say vs. what the outline of the sermon says.
It’s a big deal to hold a position that doesn’t mesh perfectly with the sermon. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s really hard. But as a student of the Bible, I have reasons for what I believe. There is logic behind my beliefs, and scripture to back it up.
At times like this, I think a lot about writing a book about the Sermon on the Mount. I’m not sure that I’m ready to go that far, but I will say that someday I probably will.
For me, writing is helpful to clarify my thoughts. Writing a book would let me lay out the results of my study and have the opportunity to see it all in “black and white”.
Interestingly, I found an old blog I wrote on back in 2014 – the last time we preached on the Sermon on the Mount in church. Clearly I was working through some thoughts back then too. But I’ll share it here because it still rings true to me.
I had to write out all my thoughts to really make sure that I knew what I thought. It’s an odd process. But the various blog articles I’ll share with you below are my thought process on the Sermon on the Mount around:
- Who is Jesus talking to? Is He preaching to His disciples? Or is He telling the crowd something? Who He is talking to makes a lot of difference in what the words mean.
- What is Jesus really talking about? Some might say “Kingdom living”. But I don’t really think so. Jesus has a very specific point He’s trying to make through this. When you look at what He actually says, that jumps out.
- How did Jesus structure His talk? To the casual reader, the Sermon on the Mount seems like a string of unrelated statements. This post breaks down the logic and flow of this talk.
Read what I wrote. How does it relate to the way you’ve been thinking about the Sermon on the Mount?
I don’t know if this is a position piece or not. But it is trying to faithfully express what the Bible has to say. More than believing me, I want you to grapple with the text and give it your full and undivided attention until the words fall into place for you.
Of course to get the right flow, you’ll have to read from the bottom up.
I’d be curious to know what you think about this topic. And what drives your interpretation?
Until next time…
Dennis
