For a time I worked at the same place my Dad did.  We used to take lunch breaks together and we would have various conversations.  I got to know him a lot better during that time.  One evening we were discussing the various interpretations of the Bible.  I have always said that while growing up I didn’t think my Dad to be very smart but once I reached the age of 21 it seemed like he had finished school or something … he seemed a whole lot smarter.  Honestly Dad didn’t go very far in formal education.  But he had one thing that made up for it; he had a lot of good ole’ common sense.  At the conclusion of that theological discussion he said, “Son, people can twist the Bible around to make it mean whatever they want it to mean.  But that doesn’t mean that what they are teaching is right.”  And he was right on the money with that statement.

            It is like a lawyer drilling a witness.  They ask a question in such a way that no explanation is allowed and all they want is a “yes” or “no” answer.  But to answer “yes” or “no” doesn’t really answer the question in its full context.  The “yes” response may incriminate someone when that isn’t the full truth.  For example pretend you are the witness and the lawyer asks, “Did your friend kill the victim?  Please answer only “yes” or “no.””  The answer is “yes” but the explanation is that it was in self-defense.  See what I mean?  It was true that he killed the victim but if he hadn’t the victim was going to kill him.    People look at the Bible in the same way.

            First let’s look at the text verse (Philippians 2:12) as read from the Amplified Version of the Bible:  “Therefore my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out – cultivate, carry out to the goal and fully complete – your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling [self-distrust, that is with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation; timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ].”  All those extra things in brackets are emphasizing the meaning of the actual Greek words Paul wrote. So he is not saying that we have the liberty to pick a verse here and there and build a doctrine on it.  No, we must look at the scripture in awe, reverence and with much caution that we don’t wrongly interpret what is being taught.  There is a huge difference!

            We have hundreds of denominations and countless independent groups that have been formed simply because of a refusal for one party or another (or maybe both) to reject their belief and conform to the Word of God.  As we said in the last article, people want to be right and will twist the scripture in any way that they can to support their belief.  But that doesn’t make it right.  If we are going to use “thus saith the Word …” then we have got to know what the Word actually “thus saith.” 

            Paul is not saying we have license to interpret the way we think best, but to carefully, prayerfully, and with much caution, make our life fit what the Bible is actually saying.  Don’t just take a verse and say “Oh well, my pastor says it is this way,” or “Mom and Dad always said it was that way, so it must be so.”  Instead dig and scrape to make sure that what you are saying is correct, and if it isn’t then be willing to conform to what the Bible is saying.

            I have said, and I have heard many others say, “Every time I read that passage it means something different to me.”  That doesn’t mean that the passage changes meaning every time we read it.  It simply means that we received something new from it the second time around.  But it still means the same thing. 

Paul told Timothy to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).  In order to “rightly divide” we must know the full context of what the Bible is saying.  We need to be aware of what was happening at the time and we must correctly interpret the words.  So the answer to the question that is the title of this article is “No, we cannot interpret the Bible for ourselves.  We must interpret it the way God meant it.  Then we are on the path to knowing the truth.”

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.