THE WORD OF GOD- THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH (PART III) – 2 Peter 1:19-21; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Tim 3:16

Lesson Aim: To understand the word of God and know how to handle it appropriately and properly to profit our lives as children of God

The Bible is God’s revelation about Himself
From our lesson previous week, all that has been said about the word of God is that the Bible gives full and ample testimony about God. Bible is also the authoritative voice of God to man. This is why theologians speak of Scripture as being ‘self-authenticating’, – it bears witness to itself in hundreds of verses as speaking the words of God himself.
How are we to interpret the Bible?

1. Because all Scripture is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) it does not contradict itself. The best way to understand the Bible is to compare one part with another: the Scripture is self- interpreting (1 Corinthians 2:13). Ask older Christians to help you if you have difficulty, but remember, no human being or church is infallible. Every other words of men are fallible and secondary.
2. The Bible is to be understood literally except where a figurative sense is obviously intended. There is symbolic language, poetical, allegorical and prophetic language; all are used in the Bible, and we need to understand when each author is using these different types of language.

Firstly, the symbolic – Jesus said, ‘I am the door’, ‘I am the vine’, ‘I I am the light’, and ‘I am the good shepherd’. He is speaking symbolically. Each of these sayings represent or illustrate an important truth about his relationship to us; the door speaks of him being the entrance into eternal life; the vine speaks of His life-giving relationship to the believer; the light speaks of his power to dispel the darkness of our ignorance, the good shepherd speaks of his care for us as his sheep.

• The Bible also uses poetic language. David says, ‘the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord’ (1 Chronicles 16:33) and Solomon says, ‘the sun… rises and the sun goes down’ (Ecclesiastes 1:5). In both places the author is using language poetically not literally.
• In his ministry Jesus also spoke to people in parables, which were word pictures from everyday life used to explain spiritual truths. For example, a tiny seed growing into a big tree illustrates how the kingdom of God, although it has small and humble origins, grows to be the greatest of all the kingdoms.
• The Bible also uses prophetic language; Isaiah speaks of a suffering servant who will come into the world to bear the sins of God’s people (Isaiah 53). This was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 8:32-35) almost 800 years later.

1. We should always interpret the difficult and obscure parts of the Bible by the obvious and clear parts, e.g. the Gospels help us to understand the events in the Book of Revelation, not the other way round!

How should we study the Bible?
Read it reverently: God is speaking to you, Christ has died for you (Luke 24:25- 27, 32)
Read it sincerely: God promises to bless those who seek him with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29:13)
Read it prayerfully: God promises to answer honest prayers (Matthew 6:6)
Read it regularly: God feeds our souls by his word (1 Peter 2:2) just as we feed our bodies with food.
Believe what you read: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
Practise what you read: God has promised, “Obey my voice and I will be your God.” (Jeremiah 7:23)
Understand what you read: Jesus said that we can only do his will when we know what it is. (Matthew 13: 19-23).