Words
“I do not think it means what you think it means”
If you’ve seen the movie, I’m sure you’ve been on both the giving and receiving end of that statement. We’ve all experienced that in one way or another. You learn a new word from the TV at the gas pump, and you start using it every chance you get - to the point where people get suspicious that you even know what that word means. Then, eventually you are confronted by someone that quotes the Princess Bride at you. It may sound obvious, but the meaning behind the words we use are vital in our communication, and to the relationships we have with one another. As God’s people, I believe we should speak the same language, spiritually speaking, so that we can understand God’s commands and obey them. A large part of healthy communication is agreeing on what certain words mean, and our divided world doesn’t do this very well. Instead, they like to take words and redefine them to forward their own agendas. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, because it has been a tactic of the Enemy since the beginning of time. Think about it, Satan has always been playing the semantic game, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat…” (Gen 3:1). Later in the New Testament, there are multiple warnings about false teachers that “quibble over the meaning of words” (1 Tim 6:4) as a way to take advantage of people. Our spiritual enemy twists words and their meanings to suit his agenda. It is our job as God’s people to give clarity and tact to God’s words, so that we can forward His agenda.
When it comes to biblical interpretation, we always want to draw the meaning out of the text (exegesis), rather than inserting our own meaning into the text (eisegesis). Speaking inaccurately on God’s behalf is serious stuff, and the damage it can cause is catastrophic. To have good exegesis, and to know the meaning of individual words, we have to understand the surrounding who, what, and why (context) of a passage. Simple fact: individual words only have meaning within their context. This is true today, and it was true in the original biblical languages. Not that I ever would do something so atrocious, but if I were to step on a lego in the middle of the night with my bare feet and whisper “shitake mushrooms” under my breath, it’s safe to assume I wasn’t referring to a fungi native to East Asia. You know what I meant based on the context. So the Greek definition of a term like, agape, that you find online doesn’t matter nearly as much as the way that it is used in the other surrounding text in Scripture. Diligence to exegesis helps us not only understand large passages of Scripture, but also individual words. Side note: I just realized that “exegesis” might become one of those words you can start using too much - Don’t make me channel my inner Inigo Montoya.
While there are difficult passages to interpret, the vast majority of statements in Scripture are translated accurately and are easy to understand. We can trust that our English translations are pretty darn accurate - because they are. We now just need the wisdom to understand and apply the miraculously preserved words of Scripture. Solid exegesis deals with the primary interpretation of Scripture, but the reason I’m writing this article is to discuss the power of the secondary interpretation. Here’s what I mean by that: Every Christian agrees that they are commanded to love their neighbor, right? No one is arguing the meaning of Jesus’ command to “love one another” in John 13:34, and that primary interpretation is not up for debate. It’s clear and simple - “love one another”. The secondary interpretation is a little more difficult, though, because now we have to accurately describe what love is and how it’s displayed in the Christian life. If we don’t know what love truly means, we can’t obey our Lord. And if we can’t obey our Lord, how much goodness in this life and the next are we missing out on? The good news is that we don’t just have to go to google for our definition of ‘love’ because we have the whole counsel of the Bible, and it gives us plenty of examples of what love is and what it looks like. The same can be said of other individual words too. The Bible doesn’t leave us hanging on how to obey the Lord. To have good secondary interpretations, we need to know our Bibles well and know God intimately. As Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice”, and if we listen closely, we’ll have healthy secondary interpretations of His words.
Let’s put the secondary interpretation concept into practice. Here’s a few common ones we need God’s help in understanding.
“Submit to me!”
Have you ever had a church leader quote Hebrews 13:17, which says “obey your leaders and submit to them”? What about Christian husbands that chastise their wives for not submitting to their authority based on Ephesians 5:22-23? Yes, God says that we should submit to leaders and that wives should submit to husbands, but how should those commands be played out in our unique circumstances? Are passages like this a ‘one-size-fits-all’? Does submission mean dealing with abuse? Let the Holy Spirit give you a good definition of submission.
“Honor your father and mother.”
This command was etched in stone by God himself. This is the first commandment with a promise in the OT, and Paul reiterates it in the NT. Yes, we all agree that we are commanded to honor our parents, and most Christians want to follow this command. Yet I’ve heard many Christians express confusion on how to honor their parents. What does honoring your parents look like, for instance, if they were abusive to you growing up? Does “honoring” them mean that you have to continue a relationship with them? What if the parents were dishonorable people that had to endure many consequences of their actions? How do you honor them if you can’t get in touch with them, or if they’ve passed away? Let the Holy Spirit give you a good definition of honor.
“Forgive as you have been forgiven.”
Jesus sternly commanded that we forgive continually; even going so far to say that we won’t be forgiven if we don’t forgive others. No Christian denies that we are called to forgive those who wrong us. The difficult part is trying to live forgiveness out, and describe what forgiveness actually looks like in our situation. As C.S Lewis said in Mere Christianity, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Perhaps a better definition of biblical forgiveness will help us to obey God’s command to forgive. Do you struggle to know that you’re fully forgiven by Christ? If you’ve forgiven someone, will there still be moments of bitterness? Does forgiveness mean I have to forget what the person did? Let the Holy Spirit give you a good definition of forgiveness.
Did you develop a working definition for each of those words? If you haven’t yet, that’s okay, I know that you have the potential to understand these concepts completely because as a Christian you have the Spirit of Truth within you. When you get to a roadblock of a secondary interpretation, it is an opportunity for you to experience a supernatural event - the receiving of His wisdom. In John chapter 14, Jesus said that He would not abandon us as orphans, and that the Holy Spirit would remind us and teach us His commands. In the gray areas of life where it gets complicated to understand God’s terms, we desperately need the Holy Spirit and His guidance. Through Him, we can develop a precise understanding of God’s Word(s) and know exactly what He requires of us as we live for Christ. The next time you open up your Bible, do your part to read it wisely with good exegesis, while also allowing the Holy Spirit to do His part by guiding you into “all the truth” (John 16:13).
