Notes from the Wayside: Perspective: Reading and Understanding

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Perspective: Reading and Understanding

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Reading and Understanding

Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you really understand what you are reading?"

The man replied, "Without someone to guide me, how could I?" Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him.

Acts 8:30-31 (CEB)

Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so

From "Jesus Loves Me" by Anna Bartlett Warner

Recently, in my personal Bible studies, I encountered some verses that I think are commonly misused or misunderstood. One of these verses is what some people have humorously dubbed the "Superman verse." In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."¹ People often quote this verse as if it means that God will help us to do whatever we set our minds to do. For example, I remember hearing a certain pop singer quote this verse years ago while she was accepting an award.

It's nice to think that God will help us to achieve our goals, but, if we read Paul's words in their original context, we will see that Paul is actually saying something different. Paul is writing his letter to the congregation in Philippi while he is imprisoned in Rome.² In his letter, he expresses his gratitude to his readers for their support, which in this case appears to be monetary.³ He then writes,
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.⁴

I'm sure that God has empowered Paul to achieve certain goals in his life, since so many of his goals have involved doing God's will and spreading God's message, but, in his letter to his friends in Philippi, he is saying that he has received strength from God to endure any circumstance life has thrown at him. In the Common English Bible, Paul's words are actually translated, "I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength."⁵

Some other verses I suspect are commonly misunderstood are found in the Gospel of Matthew. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."⁶ If we read Jesus' words literally, we might think that Jesus is guaranteeing that God will give us anything we request of God. Reality, on the other hand, would seem to contradict such a claim. I suspect that all of us have asked for things we did not receive, searched for things we did not find, and knocked on doors that never opened.

The Message is a paraphrase of the Bible in which the translator, Eugene Peterson, communicates the meaning of the biblical text in contemporary language.⁷ Personally I tend to think of it as a translation of the Bible with a commentary woven into it. In The Message, where Jesus instructs us to ask, seek, and knock in other translations, He says, "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in."⁸ If Peterson's interpretation of Jesus' words is correct, then Jesus is not making us any guarantees that God will give us what we request but is instead encouraging us to simply and directly bring any request to God.

After Jesus encourages His hearers to ask that they may receive, to search that they may find, and to knock that the door may be opened for them, He goes on to point out that, if messed-up human beings are capable of loving their children and treating them well, then we can trust our holy and righteous God to love us and to treat us well.⁹ Basically, Jesus is telling us that we can bring any request to God, confident that God will do what is best for us.

In the Church, we stress the importance of reading the Bible, but we need to do the work to understand what we are reading. Whatever passage we happen to be reading, we should be mindful of the context in which it was written. Reading a passage in different translations of the Bible can help us to understand it better, and websites like Bible Gateway¹⁰ and apps like YouVersion¹¹ make different translations readily available. We can also gain a greater understanding of a passage by using good study Bibles and commentaries and by discussing the passage with other people. In my particular branch of Christianity, we acknowledge and affirm that we read the Bible in light of Church tradition, reason, and personal experience.¹²

If studying the Bible is as important as we say it is, then it is worth taking the time and putting forth the effort to do it well.

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