How We Read Scripture

There has been an interesting discussion going on under some recent posts here on the nature of interpretation, the role of scholarship, etc. in preaching.

To help me stay on track, I try to picture myself sitting in a gathering of Christians who are going to hear the writer's letter read (maybe for the 3rd or 10th time). What would their approach be? Would they be reading between the lines? Would one turn to the other and say, "This is what Paul is saying to me. What does it mean to you?" Would they take a sentence out of context and derive some obscure "spiritual" lesson? I think most if not all would agree that they would not do anything close to that - no more than you would do that with a letter you received.

I've been recently studying and preaching from Romans. I've found a number of commentaries enormously helpful in understanding some of the intricacies of the letter and also pointing out things that I did not see in my own reading of the text. I've been able to understand the book more fully. But I still maintain that Romans is understandable by the people sitting in the pew. I teach and preach because that is one of God's ways of building the Body - not because I have greater insight.

I wrote the other day that when we preach, we are modeling how our people should approach the Bible. Think about that! We have younger Christians sitting in our congregations wondering what to do with this book! And if we preach obscurity, I believe that we are creating an impression that none of us wants to create - that the "average person" would not be able to get that insight, so why bother reading. Instead, I want to take them systematically through a text and help them see the logical argument so that they learn how to approach Scripture on their own: understanding the meaning of the text before they attempt to make application to their lives. Only that prevents horoscope-type applications that are often far removed from the meaning of the author.

Check out what Malcolm Light said here about this subject. Thanks, Malcolm!! Great points! And thanks to KP and Bumble for your comments too.