Saturday, July 1st, 2023.
People often use the Bible how those around them do.
When preachers take Bible verses out of context, so do others.
When teachers retranslate the Bible to prove a point, so do others.
When pastors spiritualize the Bible to make it more personal, then so do others.
People are looking for a pattern of how to use the Bible. If you are a Bible student, you are a minority. If you can rightly divide the Bible and not spiritualize or retranslate it, then you are a rare species.
You can be a pattern of how to properly use the Bible.
Quote the Bible to deal with life’s problems and needs but avoid invoking Israel’s promises and covenants.
Take a stand against sin but use the law lawfully and not as a tool of bondage for the saved.
When faced with hard passages, encourage Bible belief and patience instead of appealing to skeptical scholarship or foreign languages to retranslate it.
Pray with thanksgiving for the many spiritual blessings you have in Christ according to the Pauline pattern.
Provide gentle correction when you see verses taken out of context. Agree with the desire to use the Bible and be ready to provide an alternative passage in context.
Use the Bible how you would want others to use it.
You might find that others start to use the Bible rightly just because they are following your good pattern.
In His service,
Justin “quote unto others” Johnson