“Essential Elements for Understanding the Scriptures–#2”

For Part 1 of “Essential Elements for Understanding the Scriptures, Click Here

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Most all acknowledge we sometimes need help to make our Bible study more productive and meaningful. In our previous article we began to observe some of the essential elements for understanding the Scriptures. The first requisite we mentioned was “a good and honest heart.” Let’s now consider some other essentials that are needed.

It is sad, but for some the statement, “I just can’t understand the Bible” has become a deep-held belief. Many really believe comprehending God’s message to mankind is beyond their capabilities. Undeniably, there are some passages that are difficult. Peter even acknowledged as much when he wrote concerning Paul, “as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). But though Peter recognized that some things are “hard to understand,” he did not say that everything is hard to understand nor did he say that any of it is “impossible” to comprehend.

And so, that brings us to the second element essential to understanding the Scriptures. We must believe that we can understand them! In support of that, let’s dig a little further into the matter.

The Bible says we can understand God’s Word. For instance, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). He also said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). It is only to the extent that we can know the truth that we can be made free. Paul wrote to Timothy saying, “and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Peter wrote of some who had known the truth and left it saying it would have been better if they had never known it than to have known it and left it (2 Peter 2:20, 21). There are many other verses which teach that we can understand but these are sufficient to make the point.

The fact that we will be judged by the Word of God implies we can understand it. Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). Paul agreed with Jesus about the standard of judgment when he wrote, “But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things” (Romans 2:2). Jesus had prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Paul again affirmed it when he wrote “In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel” (Romans 2:16). So what’s the point? To say that we will be judged by something we cannot understand is to reflect in a very negative way on the holy and just nature of God!

The figures of speech used to describe the Word of God imply we can understand it. Peter describes God’s Word as milk and new converts as babes saying, “desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1-3). The writer of Hebrews speaks of the milk but also of the meat that belongs to the mature (Hebrews 5:12-14). To ask the question is to answer it. Would the loving Father in heaven provide His children with food they could not digest? Additionally, the word of God is described as a sword (Hebrews 4:12). It is the only offensive weapon with which we can defend ourselves against Satan and his forces (Ephesians 6:17). Would God be so cruel as to send us into battle with a weapon we could not wield? And then, the Bible is also described as a lamp illuminating the path of righteousness. The Psalmist wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). In essence, it acts as a roadmap. Again, would God give us a map so unintelligible that we could not tell where we are going?

Indeed, another of the essential elements of understanding God’s Word is a heart which believes that God’s Word can be understood.

~Mark Howell