(ALMOST
ALWAYS PRECEDED BY MERCY)
Truth of God in His Character- Ex. 34:6; Jer 10:10
Truth of God in His Word- John 17:17; Ps
119:160; 1 Thess. 2:13
Truth of God in His Spirit- John 16:13; 1 John 4:6
Truth of God in His Law- Ps 119:142
Truth of God in our Lives and His Ways- Way of Truth- Ps. 119:130; 2 Pet. 2:2
Truth of God in His works- Dan 4:37
Spiritual truths in doctrines-Gal. 5:7; 3:1
Jesus is- John 14:6
The message of the gospel- Col 1:5
The anointing- 1 John 2:27
Character Truth- Way of righteousness
We’re now found with the daunting challenge
of the pursuit of Kingdom Truth, encompassing all of these aspects, beginning
with a Hebraic understanding of the character of God, and the various sources of
His truth in His Word, His Spirit, His Law, His Works, the person of Jesus,
appropriate doctrine, the message of the Gospel, the Anointing, and of course,
the way of righteousness, that pertains to and affects godly character. This venture
is massive, and all too often, the pursuit of Kingdom Truth dilutes down to a
biblical methodology that emphasizes leather-bound paper, letters and ink,
ignoring the dynamics of the nature and functions of God manifested through the
Trinity. I love the pursuit of truth, and I love the study of the Scriptures, but
not at the expense of sacrificing my relationship with the Lord. Therefore, I
am in hopes that these future blogs will stir you to hunt for the fullness of
His Truth in a way that your dynamic relationship with Him intentionally exceeds
head knowledge and academic excellence. What good is a head full of scriptural information
if the heart is stone cold to God and is powerless, void of the miraculous
working of His presence? How then can we approach this practically?
Obviously, the Bible is the most
present and complete manifestation of Kingdom Truth available to humankind if
properly interpreted and understood. But I must ask you this question. How do
believers obtain truth if they don’t even own a Bible? It might be a surprise to
you but there are thousands of Christians worldwide that don’t have access to a
Bible, let alone biblical study materials? I have heard of accounts of pastors
in African and Asian nations who owned 2 or 3 pages of a Bible and treasured
them, yet they have never even seen a whole Bible. So then how can they get
truth if Kingdom truth is entirely dependent on Bible study? Now mind you, I am
not downplaying the importance of proper biblical study, but we can become so
dependent on the book that we ignore the Author! So then, are such people
without hope? No they are not! I've marveled at the testimonies of believers though without
Bibles were able to quote Scripture because the Holy Spirit taught it to them. Shock
of shocks, God knows His Word! Nonetheless, even so, they can still wrestle with
many of the same filters as we do. Culture, traditions, and philosophies will
be their adversaries in the same way you deal with them. You must understand that your pursuit of
Kingdom Truth is radically affected by how you've learned to recognize the living “rhema”
word of the Lord! But let me qualify this before you fly into a panic. God's truth will always be consistent with every aspect of what He’s made
available in Kingdom Truths! Therefore, if someone says that God told them to
do something contrary to His character, or counter various doctrines like the New
Birth, Salvation or Righteousness, you can know it’s not from Him because the
truths of the Kingdom of God never conflict with each other. In fact, they
confirm each other. Be willing to test
what you think is truth and find what is consistent!
John 16:12 I have yet many things
to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things
to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew
it unto you. KJV
John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. KJV
John 14:26 But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you.KJV
1 John 2:20 But you have been
anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction
from] the Holy one, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things. 21 I
write to you not because you are ignorant and do not perceive and know the
Truth, but because you do perceive and know it, and [know positively] that
nothing false (no deception, no lie) is of the Truth. AMP
1 John 2:27 But as for you, the
anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him
abides [permanently] in you; [so] then you have no need that anyone should
instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and
is true and is no falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart from)
Him [being rooted in Him, knit to Him], just as [His anointing] has taught you
[to do]. AMP
One of the unchangeable and mutual
constants that belongs to those people who consider themselves a follower of Christ,
a child of God, is the wonderful fact of the indwelling presence of the Holy
Spirit, who by the way is also known as the Spirit of Truth. I’m convinced that
a great number of believers, having been educated in an academic system aimed
at expanding the mind, have been duped into believing that if they increase
their biblical knowledge and become experts in religious vocabulary, and
practice those ideas, then they do not need the other aspects of Kingdom Truth,
especially the naturally unexplainable manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It is
highly probable that we've missed out on the bulk of Kingdom Truth simply
because of our intellectual pride and spiritual dullness. Jesus promised his,
for the most part, uneducated disciples that the Holy Spirit of truth would be
sent after His resurrection and would guide them into ALL truth, teaching them
whatever they needed to know and reminding them what He'd said to them. This
same concept is communicated in 1 John 2:20-27 when the apostle links the work of the Holy Spirit with the concept of an indwelling anointing in the believer.
The problem is we don’t believe God’s Spirit will teach us, and secondly, we don’t
know how to test what we think we've learned. This is why we need help. Furthermore,
I think you can see from what Jesus stated that God wants us to learn His
truths! Nonetheless, we need to be flexible in allowing Him to bring those
truths to our hearts in any of the manners that He’s designed. Obviously, we
all need to grow in this. So, before we consider the 4 standards for
interpreting Scripture properly, we need to allow God to be all He wants to be
to us in truth. I would highly recommend that you ask Him to reveal Kingdom
Truths to you right now. Take a moment to pray and tell Him you want Him to
make His truths known to you through His Spirit, His Character, and the reality
and person of Jesus. God is not rude, pushy or forceful. He wants you to
cooperate with His ways so that you are both in agreement. Give Him permission.
I know from personal experience that He will meet you. Maybe you don’t
own or have access to a Bible. But if you've called upon the name of the Lord
Jesus, you have the Spirit of truth residing in you just waiting to help you
live a life of faith. You are not without help or a witness. Ask Him to guide
you! He will!
I mentioned that we need to learn
to test the things we believe we have learned. That is a huge subject in
itself. Perhaps we can talk about that in a future post, but I believe that the
more we involve God in teaching us His truths, and the less we lean to the
simple but frustrating gathering of “biblical information", the more He can
actually use the Bible to teach us what we need to know and live for His glory.
In closing, let me list the
circles of context that are what good Bible scholars understand to be standards
for right interpretation. Ignoring any of these will inevitably produce
error and eventual worthlessness.
First and foremost, the standard
for truth to interpret Scripture rightly is the in working out of the
revelation provided by the Holy Spirit. That is something we must always
remember and have begun to discuss.
Secondly, when reading and
studying the Bible we need to take into account the Literary context of what we
read. If you don’t understand what literary form is presented in the text of
the passages you can misinterpret what’s being said.
Thirdly, if at all possible, you
need to gain understanding of the historical context in which the verses were
written. The influence of history encompasses a lot of factors and a
misunderstanding or ignorance of this context can corrupt the interpretation in more ways
than I like to think.
Finally, a proper interpretation
of the Bible and the passages you read must be consistent throughout the entirety
of the Bible, or what is known as the “Canon”. There are several factors that
determine the reliability of what is considered “Canonical context", and as we go
forward in this series we’ll examine that more in depth.
