Bad Interpretation

Have you ever noticed how so many are so often so bad at interpreting Scripture? No, not just "them"; us.

Take, for instance, the ever-popular story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). A woman "caught in adultery" (I question the truthfulness of the Pharisees' accusation because if she was caught "in the very act", there should have, by law, been a man there, too.) is brought to Jesus for judgment. Jesus says His famous, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." They left, and Jesus told her, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." Now, that's all pretty clear, but the most popular understanding of that text these days is "Jesus didn't care about sin (and you shouldn't either)." That is, they ignore completely the "Go and sin no more" and hang on the "I do not condemn you," as if that was the whole point. They ignore all the other texts where Jesus condemns sin and see this one as proof that we should all just hug the sinner and embrace the sin. Bad interpretation.

Take, for instance, Paul's "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom 10:4)
Did you know that there are those who argue (often angrily) that this means there are no more rules, no more laws, no more thought at all regarding how we should act. "You have Christ?" they ask. "Well, that's all you need. You can sin all you want." The theologians call it "antinomianism", the view that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law. Now, much of Scripture speaks of how we ought to live. James even says that faith without works is dead. But these folks ignore that and interpret the text as proof of their position.

I'm always amused at this one. Well, this approach. An example would be "The Lord loves a cheerful giver." (2 Cor 9:7) The take-away for many is, "Well, I'm not happy about giving, so God does not want me to give." That's a long way from "The Lord wants you to give and loves it when you're cheerful about it." But it's a common approach.

Scripture: "No one does good, not even one." (Rom 3:12)
Interpreter: "Well, I know lots of people who do good, so this must not mean what it says. We know that lots of people do good." (rendering the text meaningless)
Scripture: "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)
Interpreter: "That means I should ignore what any authority tells me and do what I feel like God wants me to do."
Scripture: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Phil 4:13)
Interpreter: "I want to live my dream, so God will strengthen me to do it."

These are examples of people who look at the texts, yank it out of context, twist it to mean what they really want it to mean, and put it back down on the page as if it's God's Word.

There are lots of ways to misinterpret Scripture and all of us suffer from it at times. Lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, lack of information ... these and more. The bad interpretation we should not be guilty of is the "Did God really say?" kind. It's the kind that was in all the examples I gave. The primary goal of the interpreter was "How can I get it to say what I want it to say?" It is likely an unspoken goal and maybe even not a conscious goal, but in all the examples I gave the faulty interpretations did not let Scripture say what Scripture was trying to say; they made it say what they wanted it to. In Paul's words, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." (Rom 3:4) If you find God's Word always saying what you like, you may be failing to properly interpret God's Word. (Hint: If it is God's Word and God is "not a man" (1 Sam 15:29; Job 9:32), but an infinite God, it should be pointed, difficult to take, and surprising at times.) James says we should be "be swift to hear, slow to speak." (James 1:19) I think that should include how we read and understand the Word. Let God speak for Himself rather than superimposing our preferences. I think there is enough imposing of preferences in our world these days.