New Year Commitments
As we begin the New Year, may we do so with a renewed commitment to serving God so that at the end of 2007 (if the Lord has not returned, of course!) we will be found faithful, particularly in how we study and apply God’s Written Word. Accordingly, may we commit ourselves to the following:
- To interpret and apply Scripture wisely and sensitively;
- To enter into the world of the text, dwell there for a while, and wrestle with it before we try to bring the text to our world;
- To be open to surprise as we study Scripture, to be taken aback, to be disarranged by texts we thought we “controlled†or knew;
- To see ourselves as practical theologians, engaging analytically, constructively, and lovingly Scripture and the practice of ministry;
- To keep a conversation going between the text and tradition, not only looking at recently written commentaries and other resources from journal articles to websites but also in going back to the early centuries of the church;
- To ask the big questions, questions that excite the imagination, questions that may turn popular (and sometimes traditional!) readings on their head;
- To discover how to combine loyalty to Scripture and criticism (I use this word in its true sense, namely, explanation) as well as combining devotion (I use this word in the sense of devoting ourselves to using our minds when reading God’s Word) and creativity;
- To balance our personal study of Scripture with studying Scripture within the Christian community;
- To interact with others without becoming parrots of others;
- To remember that demonstrating good hermeneutics principles (e.g., interpreting the obscure by the clear, interpreting Scripture by Scripture) and exegesis (i.e., drawing out the authors’ original intended meanings through the study of grammar, the meaning of words, etc.) is both a science and an art;
- To comprehend the difference between interpretive pride and interpretive humility;
- To appreciate that the deeper we probe Scripture the more powerfully it speaks to our lives;
- To fathom that though we are able to discover the meaning of passages found in Scripture, may we always marvel at the mystery that remains;
- To be content to live with uncertainties with regard to what we perceive to be difficult texts in Scripture and the certainty of our beliefs;
- To grasp that a healthy tension will naturally and necessarily exist between interpretive status quo (May we rejoice in those moments when we become convinced, or at least more certain, that we know what a passage meant and what that passages means to us today!) and interpretive journey (There will always be more to learn about that same passage!); and
- To always remember that ultimately Scripture is the subject and we are the object.
- To pay to the sound counsel of Alexander Campbell’s words as recorded in Christianity Restored:
“There is a distance which is properly called the speaking distance, or the hearing distance; beyond which the voice reaches not, and the ear hears not. To hear another, we must come within that circle which the voice audibly fills. Now we may with propriety say, that as it respects God, there is an understanding distance. All beyond that distance, cannot understand God; all within it, can easily understand him in all matters of piety and morality. God, himself, is the centre of that circle, and humility is its circumference. . . . Humility of mind, or what is in effect the same, contempt for all earth-born pre-eminence, prepares the mind for the reception of this light, or what is virtually the same, opens the ears to hear the voice of God. . . . [R]eceding from pride, covetousness, and false ambition; from the love of the world; and in coming within that circle, the circumference of which is unfeigned humility, and the centre of which is God himself,–the voice of God is distinctly heard and clearly understood. All within this circle are taught by God; and all without it are under the influence of the wicked one. ‘God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble.’ He, then, that would interpret the Oracles of God to the salvation of his soul, must approach this volume with the humility and docility of a child, and meditate upon it day and night.â€
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Categories: Bob's Thoughts, Interpretation