Basic HTML Version
rise from your knees in prayer, you
should fully recognize in your own
mind and heart that your purpose
for this Bible study is not just to
gain academic knowledge, not only
to prove a certain doctrine or fact–
but to get you closer to the stature
of the full ness of the very character
of Jesus Christ. T he only way this
can be done is for you to be cor–
rected!
God's Word is written directly to
each of us as an individual- it is
personal , direct- and as far as our
achieving salvation is concerned has
nothing to do with anybody else on
the face of the earth.
Therefore your attitude should be
the same as Jeremiah's. In fact, since
you're going to be studying the Bible,
turn to J eremiah 10:13 and read two
verses there meaningfully and as part
of your prayer. "O Lord, 1 know that
the way of man is
not in himself
it is
not in man
that walketh to direct bis
steps. O Lord,
correct me,
but with
judgment; not in thine anger, lest
thou bring me to nothing."
Remember, "Ail scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profit–
able for doctrine, for
reproof,
for
correction,
for instruction
in
righ–
teousness" (11 Timothy 3: 16).
In order for your attitude to be
proper in your approach to God's
Word, turning to one other scripture
would clearly aid you in understand–
ing what your approach should be–
in educating your attitude to be right
before you begin. "Thus saith the
Lord, The heaven is my throne, and
the earth is my footstool: where is the
house that
ye
build unto me? and
where is the place of my rest? For all
these things hath mine hand made,
and all those things have been, sai th
the Lord: but
to this man will llook,
even to him tha t is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and
trembleth at my
word.
...
Hear the word of the Lord,
ye that tremble at his word"
(Isaiah
66:1-2, 5).
This Bible contains the very mind
and thoughts of your Creator God! It
is not to be argued about.
It
is not
meant to be a club to chastise other
people with. In other words, if you
are a husband, do not use Ephesians
5:22 as a weapon against your wife–
or, if you are a wife, do not use
30
Ephesians 5:25 as a weapon against
your husband. But each of you as
husband or wife should apply Scrip–
ture
to yourself
The Bible commands you to
"study [be diligent] to show
yourself
approved unto God ..." ( 11 Timothy
2:15).
Prove All Things
T his third rule is in a way an exten–
sion of the proper attitude of self–
correction. Your approach to God's
Word should be completely positive!
The example given by the Bereans in
Acts 17: 11 : "These were more noble
than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readi–
ness of mind, and searched the scrip–
tures daily, whether those things
were so"-this was a
positive
atti–
tude. The Bereans were not search–
ing the Scriptures to prove Paul was
wrong. They were not negative,
angry, bitter.
So if you have heard something
about the Bible that you do not fully
understand, your approach in your
own personal Bible study should
prove that it
is
so.
Notice 1 Thessalonians 5:2 1
which says " Prove all things." This
word "prove" is positiye. That is the
one main point of this particular
rule of Bible study. But the word
itself means "to put to the test."
There are proving grounds on which
the modero automobiles manufac–
tured in Detroit are tested. In the
parable J esus Christ uses regarding
the wedding supper, there is a ref–
erence to a man who had just
bought five yoke of oxen . The
excuse he gave for not coming to
the supper was that he wanted to
" prove" these oxen (Luke 14: 19) .
This is the same Greek word as
used in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 1.
It meant he wanted to be excused
from the wedding supper so that he
might take the oxen out to the field,
yoke them up, hook a plow behind
them and find out whether they
would be able to do what oxen a re
supposed to be able to do. This is
basically what Pau1 is saying in 1
Thessalonians 5:21.
For example, God commands us in
the book of Malachi to prove Him in
tithing. What He wants us to do is
justas the principie is throughout the
entire Bible-to do what He says to
do. " Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be meat
in mine house, and prove me [test
me] now herewith, saith the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open you the
windows of heaven, and pour you out
a blessiog, that there shall not be
room enough to receive it" (Malachi
3:10). This is a positive going for–
ward, a finding out of what God does
say, not a search for error or dis–
proof.
Blble Never Contradicts ltsel f
Make no mistake about it. If the
Bible is inspired by God through
human instruments (11 Timothy
3:15-16; 11 Peter 1:21 ), there can be
no errors in it as
original/y wrítten.
Jesus plainly said , " The scripture
cannot be broken" (John 10:35). The
Bible does
not
contradict itself.
So if you have difficulty in under–
standing any particular scripture-if
it
seems
to say something different
from another scripture, you may just
need to study further. Always re–
member beyond any shadow of a
doubt the principie of rule four: that
God never contradic ts Himself.
Therefore, either your understanding
of the particular scripture or the
translation that you are reading is
incorrect or misunderstood.
The very source of truth is God's
Word (John 17:17)-and unless your
approach to it, your study of it, is
from this point of view you will gain
little
spirítual
understanding from
it.
Let's notice an
apparent
contra–
diction appea ring in Proverbs 26:4, 5.
Verse four reads: " Answer nota fool
according to bis folly." Yet, the very
next verse tells us: "Answer a fool
according to bis foily."
Actually, these two verses a re not
contradictory-but complementary!
The use of either verse-that is, its
principie applied to a particular
use-depends on the set of circum–
stances. Both these verses contain
gems of wisdom that each one of us
needs to learn to properly apply in
answering other people's questions.
The last part of each verse holds
the key which unlocks the meaning of
these verses-and shows them to be
The
PLAIN TRUTH