Ep. 45 - 2 Dangers in Bible Study

There are two dangers we can fall into when studying the Bible. Depending on our personalities or backgrounds, we may be more prone to one or the other. We want more Bible, but if we don’t read the Bible the way it’s intended, that’s when we get into trouble. So let’s talk about these two dangers so we can hear the voice of God in Scripture.

⏰ Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:33 Danger #1
4:27 Danger #2
8:35 Conclusion

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2 Dangers in Bible Study

There are two dangers that we can fall into when we're studying the Bible. Depending on our personalities or backgrounds, we may be more prone to one or the other, or it could be that our life situation we are in at that time we want more Bible. But if we don't read the Bible the way it's intended, that's when we get into trouble. So let's talk about these two dangers so we can hear the voice of God in Scripture. I'm JC Schroeder and this is Bite Size Seminary. The first danger is when we read only with our head. Here we are prioritizing only the intellectual side of ourselves. We want to know what the Bible says. It's history, it's theology, it's grammar. We need these things and I've been in school a long time reading the Bible from an academic perspective to get those things. But when we only use our head and only is the key word here then we risk treating the Bible as an object, something only to be studied, analyzed, put under a microscope, but not experienced. It creates a distance between us and the Bible and God as its author. It can be easy for us to limit the demands of the text on our own lives. It leaves us spiritually, emotionally detached. Scripture no longer transforms us. We are standing over Scripture instead of submitting to it. I think this is James's fear when he says in James 1.22, but be doers of the word and not hear only deceiving yourselves. We don't want to deceive ourselves One of the scariest verses in the Bible. So we don't want to deceive ourselves and think our knowledge about the Bible, about theology, means we are obedient to the word In all reality. Who cares if you can list out every attribute that God has, if it doesn't do something to you? I love this quote from Howard Hendricks the Bible wasn't written to make you a smarter sinner, but to make you like the Savior. Depending on your personality or your situation, you may be more predisposed to this danger. This one is especially dangerous to seminary or Bible college students. This is an acute danger for me because I love history, I love the research. That's not a bad thing, but if that is all it is for me, if it's only history and if it's only research, then that means I'm in a bad spiritual place. The solution for us is to have a consistent time with the Lord, to think deeply about how the text is seeking to transform us. We don't want to make the homework or research, our quiet time. We need prayer and reading the Bible, not without our analytical side, but in conjunction with our spiritual lives. One of the analogies I use with my students to help them understand the process of studying the Bible is that final step is application, of applying it to our lives. It's this first step of thinking about baking a cake, where you have to take all the ingredients, you put all the ingredients together and then the application section is where you actually bake the cake in the oven. Then you don't just sit there and look at this cake and go, wow, isn't this a beautiful cake? You actually want to eat it. That's the way we should approach Scripture is thinking about how does this work in my life, baking the actual cake. But if we don't do it, we don't do what the Bible is actually telling us to do. Then we are not enjoying and using Scripture the way it was intended. Now, another way we can avoid this danger is we want to surround ourselves with people who may read more devotionally, who are less academically or analytically inclined. In the reading, we want to remind ourselves that we're not just thinking brains that are walking around. We need to embrace our whole humanity and allow Scripture to transform us, the head and the heart. The second danger is maybe you guessed it already is reading only with our heart. Here we are prioritizing only our spiritual side, leaving the intellectual side behind. Remember again, here the keyword is only. We're only focusing on the spiritual and not on the intellectual, analytical side. Here we can be so rightly concerned about applying the Bible that we make it all about us. When we start to say this is what this verse means to me, then we are shifting the focus of Scripture off of the Lord, off of his message, of what his demands are, of what his desires are, onto us. What do I want, what do I need? Now, this is totally understandable to a degree when we feel like our lives need the Lord and we just want him to speak to us. We want to just open our Bible and hear what should I do, lord? But if we're not careful, that type of feeling, that type of experience, we will subtly import our own experiences and our own expectations onto the text. We have to remind ourselves that the Bible is not written for JC or for you alone. God spoke through the human authors to his people in specific times and places. I think it was John Walton who had the helpful line the Bible is not written to us, but it is written for us. What I think he means here is that the Bible has tremendous meaning and relevance for us as believers, but we have to do the hard work of interpretation, cultural and grammatical analysis. The Bible can't mean something to us that it didn't mean to the original reader. So for coming up with these readings that are unique to us and our own situation, then we're doing something illegitimate with Scripture. This goes along with the second way I see this danger playing out, and that's when people say we don't need to study, we just need the Holy Spirit. Now, yes, 100%, we need the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives and we want his help in understanding and being transformed by his word. But appealing to the Holy Spirit is not some cheat code from doing the studying and having good reading skills. Again, I'll go back to that maxim I just said the Bible can't mean something to us that it didn't mean to the original readers. So the Holy Spirit is not going to lead you or lead me to something or an interpretation no one else could see or understand. So, again, if we're creating unique interpretations, this is probably something that the Holy Spirit is not leading you to. He wants to bring out what he has already said in Scripture to the original readers and find out and incorporate that and transform our own individual lives. The solution for this danger of reading only with our heart is to make sure we think more carefully about the Bible. We need to make sure we're investing some time into the research side, even as difficult as that may be for some of us. Maybe buy a book or two. I've got several videos on books that will help with that and then you also. It's helpful, I find, to surround yourselves with people who read more analytically. Again, we want to embrace our whole humanity and even embrace our whole community as well. We're not just thinking brains walking around, but we're also not just spirits waiting to shed reason and our thinking abilities we have. Both of those things should be used in conjunction, and we need to embrace our whole humanity and allow us to think carefully about Scripture as we allow it to transform us. So that's two dangers we want to avoid so we can hear God's voice as he intended. I pray that you and I both read and live well before the Lord. If you liked this video. You might be interested. I've also got a whole playlist on videos for how to read the Bible a little bit better. It's on the screen now. You can check it out if you want. Thanks so much for watching, and may the Lord bless you.