Tagged: Interpretation

A Hermeneutic of Faith (Or, Be a ‘Doer’ of the Word)

I shared about approaching the Bible with a hermeneutic of humility and mentioned one other aspect that should be a part of our approaching the Bible: a hermeneutic of faith.

Really, what I want to say is summed up quite well by Augustine:

So anyone who thinks that he [sic] has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbour, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.

Since I’m currently in the context of teaching John, it is especially clear from John’s purpose statement in 20:30-31 what he desires for his readers:

These things are written that you may believe that the Messiah, the Son of God, is Jesus, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

It would be a shame (to put it mildly) to spend all sorts of time discussing the text of John’s Gospel and the Bible as a whole, but never trust the One that it points to. So, approaching the Bible requires trust in God, believing in who he claims to be and following what he has called us to. We must be ‘doers’ of the Word, as Jesus’s half-brother, James, once quipped.

A Hermeneutic of Humility (Or, Oh, You Puny Creature!)

I mentioned a few days ago that we had our first study on John last week. The second one will follow this Wednesday evening as we get into the Prologue. I spoke on how to go about interpreting John’s Gospel and I closed with two items: a hermeneutic of humility and a hermeneutic of faith. Here’s what I mean by the first.

None of us can claim omniscience, that is, to be all knowing. There is one being in all the universe that can lay claim to that trait, and that’s God. Necessarily, we as finite human beings are limited in our knowledge.

And think about when we come to trying to understand the all-knowing, all-powerful creator god.

Start by thinking about the thoughts in your mind right now.

God knows them all.

Now think about how you’ve been having (I assume!) consistent thoughts all day long on a whole range of items.

God knows them all.

Now, are you beside someone else? Or were you at some point today? Think about how that person, one other person, has been having their own thought-life all day long as well.

God knows all their thoughts too.

Now consider that that happened today, all day, with six billion people.

God knows all those thoughts too.

Now multiply that by each person’s lifetime of thoughts and those that have gone before us for thousands upon thousands of years (or longer!).

God knows them all.

Phew… that’s a lot of thoughts. And that’s just thoughts, to say nothing of events and all else. And God knows them all, can recite them all, call them all to mind (or maybe they’re just there all the time, I don’t know!). That’s a BIG God.

And now, come back to just you. Think about how small your thoughts are compared to what God must know. And you are trying to understand him?

Well, I think that calls for a dose of good-ol’ humility, wouldn’t you say?

And appropriately, in Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV), God says:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Implication? Let’s be humble about our understanding of God. Let’s be willing to be wrong. Let’s be willing to listen to each other and respect each other. Let’s be willing to come to God’s Word humbly.