Discovering Bible Truth

We are spending a few days and examining several different Bible verses that are commonly used completely out of context.  We are doing this with the goal of understanding these passages in their actual context.  We don’t want to assign a meaning to a passage of Scripture that it does not have…doing so is to abuse and misuse the Bible.

Before we look at the verse for today, I want to take a little time and talk about proper Bible study.  If you are not interesting in this, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph to see the verse we are examining today.  One person said that my interpretation of a verse that we looked at a few days ago was baseless, so I want to explain how these meanings are derived.  There are several components of context that must be studied and understood in order to have an accurate interpretation of a passage.  (1) Scriptural context.  This is how the verse or passage fits into the larger picture.  How does a verse fit with the paragraph, how does the paragraph fit with the book, and how does the book fit with the overall message of Scripture?  Who was this written to?  (2) Historical context.   This is what was going on in the world at that time.  Was this written during a time of war? Why was it necessary for this to be written?  What was happening in the Christian world?  Was there persecution,  growth of the church, false teachers, etc.? (3) Biographical context.  This is a more narrowed aspect of historical context.  It asks similar questions but about the authors and the readers.  The fact that Paul is in prison during some of his writings adds meaning to what he writes.  The fact that Christians were facing persecution adds meaning to Hebrews 10:25.  This must be studied.  (4) Grammatical context.  This deals with the literary styles, word studies, parts of speech, tenses, etc.  Each of these areas of context need to be studied and understood in order to have an accurate interpretation of a passage.  These misused verses that we are looking at are negligently abused as a direct result of one of these areas of study being overlooked.

With that being said, the verse that we are looking at today is Proverbs 22:28.  This verse says “Remove not the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set.”  This is a verse that is commonly used to talk about not moving from convictions and standards that we have set in our lives.  Or it is used to prove that people should not leave certain traditional aspects of our denomination.  That is a complete misuse of that verse.  In the Old Testament land-owners would mark the boundaries of their property with big stones that they called landmarks.  It was common for dishonest neighbors to gradually move their neighbors landmark/property boundaries in order to give themselves more land. 

This verse, and those like it, are teaching that it is wrong to steal from your neighbor…specifically his land.   Deuteronomy 19:14, Deuteronomy 27:17, and Proverbs 23:10  all show that this is referring to land that belongs to someone else, not personal convictions.   Even if you think that people should hold to their convictions and traditions, don’t twist Scripture to try and prove your point.  To do so is to abuse and misuse the Bible!

Yesterday I started a mini-series of posts all under the heading of Misused And Abused Bible Verses.  We are taking a look at verses in the Bible that are commonly used completely out of context.  As I stated yesterday our goal should always be to understand the Bible in context and hold to its biblical meaning not our man-made meaning. 

The verse that we are going to look at today is Proverbs 29:18 which says in the KJV, “where there is no vision the people perish…”  I have heard this verse used numerous times to say that leadership need to have a God-given vision and that when they don’t they are leading their churches to destruction.  This verse is not at all referring to a 5-year plan kind of a vision.   

The word “vision” refers to the revelation that a prophet would receive from God.  It is how God communicated in that time.  It was the method of transferring the word of God to the people.  It can very literally be translated “prophetic utterance”.  The word ‘perish’ is better translated “cast off restraint”.  The intended meaning of this verse is that when the people do not have God’s Word in their lives the result is that all restraint is cast off.  Without the Word of God in our lives all moral restraint is gone.

You may ask, ‘how do you know that the word vision refers to prophetic revelation?’  One way is simply the definition of the word that is used.  The second way is found in the text.  The second part of the verse says ”but happy is he who keeps the law.”  There is an invisible link between the word vision and the word law.  These two ideas are being contrasted and as a result the truths of each point are related.  On one side you have people who cast off restraint because they do not have any revelation (law) from God, and on the other side you have people who are blessed because they are obedient to the law (Word of God/revelation/vision).  The ESV has the best translation.  It reads, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

The way to be blessed and live in agreement with God’s Word is not through having a 5-year plan (vision), its through having more of God’s Word in our lives.  Again, let’s not misuse and abuse Scripture!

Over the next several days I will be taking a look at several different Bible verses that are commonly misused and abused in Baptist circles.  Our goal should always be to understand the Bible in context and hold to its intended meaning not our man-made meaning.

The first verse that I want to look at today is Hebrews 10:25.  It says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.  This verse is commonly used to say that we need to be in church 3 times a week…every time the doors are open.  Pastors use this verse as a proof verse of church attendance.  It is used to guilt people into attending church at every possible opportunity.  I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be faithful to our churches.  I am saying that this verse is not at all teaching that and to use this verse in that way is to misuse and abuse Scripture.

In order to accurately understand the true meaning of this verse you must understand the context.  The book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians…people who had left Judaism in order to follow Christ.  These were true believers in Christ who had left Judaism, in which they had been born and raised, to become followers of Christ…believeing that Jesus was the Messiah. 

As a result of their decision to follow Christ they faced tremendous hostility from their own people.  They were ostracized by their families and received persecution from neighbors.  They were facing real suffering and all of this persecution was a result of their belief in Christ as Savior.

The High Priest was even persecuting them.  He had all Christian Jews automatically banished from the holy places because they were considered unclean.

-          They could not go to the synagogue

-          They could not go to the Temple

-          They could not offer sacrifices

-          They could not communicate with the priests

-          They could not have anything to do with their own people

-          They were cut off from their own society

This was all happening because they believed and clung to the fact that Jesus was the messiah.  They were banished from every sacred thing they had ever known and this was tearing at them.

These Christians had not been saved for very long and were not mature enough to deal with this kind of persecution.  They were in danger of going back to their previous lifestyle…back into the patterns and practices of Judaism.   Many of them were leaving the church (the assembling of themselves) to go back to their previous ritualistic lifestyle.  They were saved, but due to persecution, they still hung on to the habits of the former lives.  They were having difficulty making a clean break …they were in danger of mixing the old with the new.  The writer of Hebrews is trying to get the readers to understand that they have no need to fear persecution….there is no need to go back into their former lifestyles.  The Christ they had committed to is above everything else…He is above the rituals, He is above the sacrifices, He is above the high priest, He is above the law.  He is above everything that their former lives represented.  They had no reason to respond in fear.  They needed to stay committed to Christ in the face of this persecution.

This verse is not teaching about church attendance.  It is teaching that we need to stay true to our faith in the midst of persecution.  We need to resist the urge to return to the sinful lifestyles we lived before committing to Christ.  Let’s not abuse and misuse God’s Word.