How We Interpret the Bible

One of the key and vital focuses for local churches and for individual Christians is in our approach to the scriptures. During our church's staff retreat this past week, we talked a lot about the importance of offering people opportunities to read, study, and discuss the bible in small groups and classes.

I am grateful for the opportunity to teach two bible studies here at Lancaster First UMC which are both designed to help us study the scripture text that will be used for the upcoming Sunday morning in worship.

Dr. Scott McKnight is a New Testament scholar who has written several books to help us think about a helpful approach to our study of the scriptures. Recently, he was the keynote speaker at The Chapel, which is a church near the University of Akron.

Bob Robinson who attended the presentation posted a summary of Scott's message on his web blog. It's an excellent summation of five shortcuts people often use when trying to interpret the bible. Scott McKnight encourages us to not settle for taking a shortcut approach when reading, studying, and applying the bible.

Instead, we are to interpret the bible in its narrative context. When we see the bible as story, it helps us to not interpret the scriptures with our preconceived biases of what we think it means.

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As you read Bob's s summary of Scott's presentation, think about the shortcut(s) that you tend to use when reading and interpreting the bible. By being aware of these shortcuts that we often take, we are better able to interpret the scriptures in their original context.