Sermon Tone Analysis

QR Teaching Notes

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'That's just your interpretation'.

It’s a common mantra quickly quoted when someone dares to point to the Bible’s teachings as being objectively true for all people, all times, & all places.

Many think individual Bible passages can be rightly interpreted lots of different ways - especially THEIRS.

But, are there multiple meanings?

If not, how can we learn to read it right?

Today we find out.

Over the last several years our US Constitution has been twisted like a pretzel to say things its authors never intended.

MANY WONDER HOW COULD THIS BE HAPPENING?

I have a theory.

The American culture has pressed an almost 250 year old document - the Constitution of the United States - to say what some WANT IT TO SAY.

Instead of spotlighting the author’s intent our culture has the tendency to honor the response of the reader.

AUTHOR’S INTENT The author actually wants you to understand what he/she intended to write.

You can’t twist what an author meant to make it mean something the author never meant.

READER’S RESPONSE doesn’t ask “What does it MEAN”, but asks “What does it MEAN TO ME?”

It’s being taught throughout our culture - in college classes, on TV shows…and even in our churches.

Instead of asking “WHAT does this MEAN?”, the reader asks, "What does this mean TO ME?”

Years ago I traveled to see to a college student whom I dearly loved who had begun to tell people about his homosexual orientation.

He had sat under my teaching for years.

He had been in my home multiple times, we had eaten together on many occasions, and we had been together on multiple mission trips to share & care for others in the name of Jesus.

I took him out to lunch and he shared what he was feeling.

I asked him to read a book that addressed the sin of sexual impurity & pointed to the promise of forgiveness & hope in Jesus.

To my surprise, he was already reading it.

Of course I encouraged him and told him I loved him and would do whatever I could to help walk with him through life - as we had been doing for years.

In a few weeks, his social media pictures began to reveal that he had chosen the homosexual lifestyle instead of obeying Jesus.

I called - he didn’t want to talk much.

When I asked about the book he had been reading he explained that the book helped him to see what he needed to do.

HOW COULD THAT BE?

The book was about walking away from sexual impurity, not running to it!

Instead of asking, “What does this book MEAN?”

He read meaning INTO it and asked, “What does it MEAN TO ME?”

Reader-Response simply doesn’t work in real life.

In real life, most authors actually MEAN something when they write, so it is the author’s intent that matters most, not the reader’s response.

There is a simple writing that we read everyday in America.

It is the big word STOP painted on the red octagonal signs.

If you chose to, you can follow a reader response approach and interpret the text to mean: "slow down just a bit, look for cars, and then speed on through the intersection."

The police, however, believe strongly in authorial intent for the determination of meaning, so they will respond to your interpretation with a traffic ticket and fine.

Some texts are obviously written to communicate important messages to their readers.

To ignore the author's intention destroys the reason why the author wrote in the first place!

Sadly, in our day and age where so many think that personal preferences often rule over truth, this mindset has crept into the church and our view of the Scriptures.

"Put off the Old Man”

Woman having an affair.

When confronted she said God had told her to divorce her husband and marry the other man.

God told her to do this as she read Colossians 3:9-10.

Colossians 3:9–10 (KJV 1900)

...put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man...

“Grace to You”

A man said God had told him he was to marry one of the worship leaders.

Her name was ‘Grace’.

He explained that God had spoken to him from Scripture as he read from the KJV, “Grace be to you.” Paul opens with this in 3 of his letters: 2 Cor.

1:2, Gal.

1:3 & Eph.

1:2.

2 Corinthians 1:2 (KJV 1900)

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace is not a person given to an individual.

Grace is a GIFT for all those who follow Jesus.

One response makes us FROWN and another makes us LAUGH...but aren’t they doing the SAME thing?

Aren’t they twisting the Scripture to make it say something it never really said, to make it mean something it never meant?

Aren’t they both claiming the Scripture says something that it never really intended?

Doesn’t it stop being God’s words when we make it mean something He never meant?

(We’ll explore these passages in a minute.)

How could this kind of Scripture twisting happen?

Some intentionally twist the text to deflect the conviction, OR

Others genuinely think this is how Scripture is to be read.

Whether you know it or not, many of us have even been trained to do this, to twist the text out of its context.

In fact, over the last 20 years, this is the single most important lesson God has been teaching me - He is retraining me how to read and rightly interpret the Scriptures.

It has been bitter-sweet process.

It has been bitter as I have had to lay down long-held beliefs, question what authorities in my life have taught, and humble myself and admit when I was wrong - to twist my beliefs to the Bible instead of twisting the Bible to fit my beliefs.

As a result Scripture has become more sweet to me.

I appreciate the Scriptures more than ever before.

I am more confident of what I believe and more pliable in how I behave.

And today, I am asking God to begin the painful but important task of re-training all of our minds as we talk answer the question: How do we read it right?

We are stepping onto some dangerous ground today, a minefield that many people would just rather avoid.

It’s just easier to let people think what they want rather than correct poor interpretation.

But I am convinced that this is an area we must carefully explore.

In fact, if you don’t claim to follow Jesus & you are confused about what the Bible teaches, I hope this will give you more insight on how YOU can read the Bible - even if you don’t believe it has been given by God to people through people.

If you ARE a follower of Jesus, be prepared because what we are going to explore might make you MAD before it makes you GLAD.

If your experience is anything like mine, when you realize that you have been asking the wrong question, ”What does this mean TO ME?” instead of asking “WHAT does this MEAN?”, you are going to have to swallow some humble-pie and ask the Lord to HELP you learn how to read the Scriptures right.

Multiple warnings are given to hold to good teaching, confront false teaching, & live the message of Jesus.

For example, Paul tells Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

[NET: teaching the message of truth accurately]

As we learned last week, it is wise to take a look from multiple translations.

Rightly handling and accurately are translated from a Greek word orthos, (“straight”), the same word from which we build words like orthopedic and orthodoxy.

Timothy was to teach & live God’s truths without deviating or diluting the truth.

Obviously, Paul was aware of those who interpret, handle, teach, & live out the gospel message WRONGLY.

Sadly, in our day there is MUCH teaching that has veered off the straight path.

Again, there are only 2 reasons for this:

intentionally twist the Scripture OR Don’t know how to read it right.

To those people, we, as Timothy was charged, must say…YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

That’s really tough when WE realize…that person is ME.

Turn to someone and say, “It’s hard to admit when I’m wrong.”

Later in the same letter Paul writes these words to Timothy:

2 Timothy 4:1–2 (NIV)

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV)

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.