DANGEROUS APPROACHES

25/02/24 17:58
Let’s look at a few dangerous approaches to Bible study. These are common approaches that we need to try and avoid.

First, avoid the emotional approach. This is where we look at Scripture and ask, “What feels right to me?” If you want what feels right, you're going to skip over all kinds of text in the Bible. Not all Bible text gives us that nice fuzzy feeling. When we start to read about the wrath of God, when we read about the prophets of old, we are not going to walk away feeling great. Lamentations can get you down right depressed.

Avoid the spiritual approach; which is when we look for that deep, hidden, meaning. This is when we say, “I see it says this, BUT, what does it really mean?”. A portion of this is not bad, but there’s a danger of over analyzing things.

Avoid the pragmatic approach. This is when we ask, “What works best for me?” This is when we look for text, or translation of text, that best fits within our lives. This is a self-centered and arrogant way to study the bible. When we study this way, we miss the whole point of God’s truth for our lives. This is the point in which we say, “This is my life and I’ll live it how I want; so, I’ll use the Bible to justify what I want”. This error of Bible study is happening all over this country today.

Avoid the superficial approach. This is when we ask, “What does this mean to me?” Now, I’m sure we have all been to a Bible study and someone reads a passage then asks, “What does this verse mean to you?”. We end up going around the room with each person saying what it means to them. Everyone walks out of the Bible study saying, “I learned so much” but the truth is, they didn’t learn about the Bible, they learned about each other; because, they never asked, “What does the text mean?” This isn’t saying that Scripture does not apply differently to different people, but we must first determine what the Scripture means before we look at application. So, let’s not ask, “What does this verse mean to me?”; let’s ask, “What does this verse mean?”