Saturday, March 11th, 2023.
A wrong way to study the Bible is to come to it with a preconceived idea looking for passages to prove your supposition.
You will always find passages.
Looking to prove a revival? You will find texts about the Spirit moving and things being revived.
Looking to prove that Jesus was not God? You will find texts about his human limitations, his submission to God, and his praying to the Father.
This type of study does not care about context, contradictory passages, or what the author intended to speak. The goal of studying for prooftexts is to appropriate the authority of the Bible for our own ideas.
The right way to study the Bible is to let the text tell you what to believe.
Right doctrines are proved not by our searching under every rock to find a prooftext for our doctrinal bent, but because the Bible itself gives the proofs in the context.
The Bible teaches the doctrines of the Godhead, the person and work of Jesus Christ, the revelation of the mystery, and the gospel of salvation.
The text makes the arguments for these doctrines, we merely repeat them. Right use of the word of God is not as proof for your teaching, but as letting the word of God teach itself.
For your edification,
Justin “let the Bible teach” Johnson