Reading the Bible Correctly

Is There a Wrong Way to Read the Bible?

Oftentimes when talking to people about scripture, you may hear the phrase “this is what it meant to me”. While it’s true that people an apply the Bible to their lives in different ways, it isn’t true that it can mean whatever someone wants it to mean. 

“Well that’s how I interpret it…” someone might say. And really, we have to establish the difference between application and actually understanding what the author is intending to say. 

I think back to one of my least favorite episodes of the sitcom Full House, for example. There’s an episode where a love letter makes it’s way around the house, with each person reading it and interpreting it differently. (This induces secondhand anxiety and embarrassment, hence why I hate the episode)

At one point, Kimmy mistakenly gets the letter, thinking it’s from Jesse. Upon reading, she assumes that Jesse is in love with her and is going to leave his wife so that they can be together. As the letter gets passed from person to person, each mistakenly believing it’s been written to them, chaos ensues as each reader misunderstands the author’s intent in writing it, which then leads to them misunderstanding what the letter actually says. Eventually, we find out the context of the letter. It was written by a kid trying to prank DJ. He sent her a fake love letter so that she would think she had a secret admirer. But because nobody in the house had any background information about the letter, they all interpreted it incorrectly. 

Misunderstanding the Bible is a lot like this. If we don’t understand some basic things about what we are reading beforehand, it is possible that we can get it wrong. 

What would have been helpful to the Full House gang? First of all, to know who wrote the letter in the first place. Let’s take the book of 1 Timothy for example. Upon first glance, you might think that the author was who the book is named for. In reality, the book is a letter written to Timothy by Paul. 

Secondly, it would be helpful to understand the intent of the author. In the Full House world, the intent of the letter was to be a prank. In Bible world, 1 Timothy was written as an encouragement and instruction to Timothy as he pastored a church in a difficult area. 

Let’s look at why this matters when we’re reading scripture. 

1 Timothy 5:23 says, “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

Without any background information, a normal person would read this and say: Cool! The Bible says it wants me to add some alcohol into my diet!

Within the proper context, you’d understand that Paul was speaking directly to Timothy about some health issues they’d probably previously discussed, and not to us. 

Let’s move on to something a little harder:

1 Timothy 2:10-12 says, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

If you’re reading this without any background information, this quote taken out of context would probably cause you to think the Bible is sexist. Interpreted incorrectly, women would not be allowed positions of leadership within the church, to be authoring books, teaching, etc. 

Interpreted correctly, you would understand that in this time period and location, women were generally not educated yet, as a man would be, so it really wouldn’t make sense for them to be able to teach. You would probably not be immediately offended. It’s the same reason we wouldn’t let a 12 year teach a college class about performing surgery. 

Which means that the actual application for us today is: unqualified folks should not be teaching the Bible. (Side note: You may have noticed this application isn’t particularly popular because you still have plenty of people (men AND women) saying all sorts of whacked out stuff in regards to scripture.)

Please, don’t get me started on Psalm 46:5. That’s a post for another day.

We don’t get to decide what the Bible means. God already did. He breathed his word through all of the different authors of the Bible. It means what they intended it to mean when they wrote it. Application may vary in the different seasons of our lives, but the original meaning is always unchangeable. 

Reading the Bible isn’t hard, but it does take a little more work than what most people think. If you’ve been desperate to understand your Bible, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I would love to help you!