Unseen Lenses

A great many Christians today hold the belief that loving God’s Word equates to understanding it rightly. Passion, love, excitement, and interest can become powerful lenses that cause us to mistake sincerity for accuracy. We think to ourselves, “If our motives and intentions are good, why wouldn’t our interpretation of Scripture be sound?” But sincerity and accuracy are not the same thing.

It is possible for someone to be deeply genuine and sincerely wrong at the same time. Not only history, but more specifically the history of the church, proves this. Many errors seen throughout the centuries have not come from people who hate Scripture, but rather from those who mishandled it. Good intentions do not exempt us from poor interpretation. In fact, this is one of the largest unseen lenses affecting our ability to rightly divide the truth. When we see ourselves as people with good intentions, full of zeal for God and His Word, we often give little consideration to where we may be interpreting Scripture incorrectly.

There are others who assume that possession of the Holy Spirit removes the need for learning, growth, and careful study. But the Spirit who inspired Scripture also calls us to labor to understand it rightly. In Knowing Scripture, R.C. Sproul warns against confusing spiritual sincerity with sound interpretation. He says,

“The Spirit does not do our studying for us.”

That means zeal is not a substitute for study, sincerity does not guarantee accuracy, and spiritual passion does not mean your interpretation is sound. It further does not mean that just because you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, your understanding of Scripture will always be correct. So, let us approach what we profess to love with sober-mindedness and labor to understand it rightly.

Everyone Reads Through Lenses

Do not be fooled into believing that we come to Scripture as a blank slate. Every person approaches the Bible with lenses already in place, often without realizing it. These lenses are formed by things that happen for us, to us, around us, and within us, and they all have a shaping effect on how we see and interpret Scripture.

Some lenses are formed by our background. The home we grew up in, the parents we had, the education we received, the church we grew up in, and the voices that spoke into our lives all help shape how we read the Bible.

Some lenses are formed by pain. Wounds from people who hurt us make passages about submission feel threatening. Disappointments transpose upon the text the ever-looming reality that every good and perfect gift will ultimately lead us to disappointment. Abuse from a parent will instruct how we see God.

Some lenses are formed by our personality. A naturally candid or harsh person might interpret all Scripture with a condemning or condescending edge to it. An introverted person might neglect the call to communal life, and an extroverted person might subvert passages calling us to silence and meditation.

Some lenses come from culture. The type of lenses that teach us to prize self-expression, personal autonomy, comfort, and emotional authenticity. Those lenses do not stay outside the doors of the church but have a strong interpretive impact right from our pulpits.

The danger is not the presence of lenses. The danger is pretending we do not have them.

Reading Ourselves Into the Text

One of the largest mistakes we make when reading Scripture is eisegesis, or reading ourselves into the text. Instead of asking, “What is God trying to say?” we look for things that validate what we already believe. Instead of asking, “What did this passage mean to the original audience?” we look for ways to make it immediately about ourselves. Instead of submitting to the authority of Scripture, we recruit it to hold up our preferences and opinions.

This is exactly how passages get ripped from their context and plastered on T-shirts to gratify the desires of the flesh. This is why difficult portions of Scripture are rejected, excused away, or softened to the point of no efficacy. This is how we end up using the Bible for our benefit while simultaneously refusing to be corrected by it.

Reading ourselves into the text turns the Bible into a mirror reflecting our own desires rather than a window revealing God’s truth.

Scripture Must Interpret Us

The Bible was not given so we could reshape it in our image. It was given so God could reshape us in His. Hebrews 2:1 warns, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Drift rarely happens in a moment. It happens gradually through inattention. We stop listening carefully. We assume we already know. We grow casual with truth. Then we slowly move away from what God has said. That is why Scripture must interpret us.

We do not stand over the Bible as judges. We stand under it as disciples.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Don’t let that be lost on you. We are either being conformed by the world or transformed by truth. Whatever way you look at it, you are standing under something. Don’t stand under culture and allow it to be your tutor, because the only natural response is for you to stand over the Bible as judge.

Humility Is the First Step to Clarity

I have discovered that the greatest barrier to understanding the Bible is not the absence of intellect, but rather presence of pride.

Pride says, “I already know this passage.”
Pride says, “My tradition cannot be wrong.”
Pride says, “If the text confronts me, the text must be the problem.”

Humility says something different.

Humility says, “Teach me.”
Humility says, “Correct me.”
Humility says, “Show me where my lenses are distorting what You said.”

The Bible opens most clearly to the heart that bows before it. God does not give His Word so that we may master it in pride, but so that it may master us in humility. If we would understand Scripture rightly, we must come not as those certain of ourselves, but as those ready to be taught, corrected, and changed.

Final Thought

Most people who misread Scripture are not trying to rebel. They are simply unaware of the lenses they brought with them. That is why discernment matters. That is why humility matters. That is why we must pay closer attention. If you never question the lens, you may never truly hear the text.