The Lamb's Bride Project
Read Your Bible Right Start reading your Bible correctly by adding back in the Greek plurality lost by the English language and Western culture. It's very hard for us to think that in all our years of reading the Bible we might have missed something important or read some things incorrectly. But then we remember that the Bible is God's Word and carries more meaning than we could grasp in ten lifetimes. One thing plaguing us is that we study the Bible through the filter of our Western culture. The culture around the Mediterranean Sea is now and was back in Bible times quite the opposite of our American culture. Things that were second nature to the first Christians don't even come to our minds today. How many of Jesus' words were in a context so foreign to us that comprehension is not the problem; total blindness is. Another thing that makes it difficult to understand many passages in the Bible is our English language, which does not distinguish between singular and plural second-person pronouns ("you"), or between singluar and plural verbs (he ran, they ran). Thus the important word "you" can mean "you the individual" or "you as a group". Here our culture lends a hand at confusion. The individualistic nature of our culture and its values prioritize "you the individual" so much that we would seldom automatically think "you as a group" when reading our Bibles. Only very, very clear Bible passages come through to us as plural in meaning. And, even then, we individualize them by thinking, "What is my responsibility?" rather than, "What is our responsibility?" The values of individualism and autonomy have stripped away our sense of responsibility in one another's lives. Fortunately, the family has not been so overrun, and we still care that our family does well, projects a positive image, and is successful as a group. Oh, that it were so in the church! The problem is that the "you" of the Bible is usually "the group of you" both in the Greek and, probably more important, in the culture in which the Bible was written. Thus, we often misread our Bibles. For example, in the book of Philippians there is only one singular "you." That singular pronoun is found in Phil. 4:3: "Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women. . . ." But how many sermons have you and I heard that also gave a singular application to Phil. 1:6 -- ". . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"? This is just the third sentence in a letter to a church! Why on earth would we think it is talking about the completion of the individual Christian? It is not about my completion or yours, except that we are included in the church that is being completed. The verse clearly means "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in (all of) you (together as a church) will carry it on to completion [within your fellowship and community] until the day of Christ Jesus." [This is from our commentary, The Fellowship New Testament Commentary on Philippians. See Order Online.] The application more faithful to the text, therefore, is that you will not be completed unless your church is completed. This is just the opposite of what most of us have been taught. We have been taught to trust that "I" will be completed. No, as a part of the church we will be perfected. And here is a tragic truth: Apart from the society of the church which is the kingdom of God, individual Christians will be stunted in their spiritual growth. A Christian in a cave cannot grow to completion. A Christian cut off from live interaction with other believers cannot be completed. Able-bodied people who attend only electronic church through radio and television and computers will not be completed (although interaction via newsgroups and mailing lists can produce a little growth). Church and church membership are necessary for significant individual spiritual growth. This is what Philippians 1:6 really says. And notice we haven't even touched upon the plural conjugations of Greek verbs, a distinction lost in the English language, even in the King James Version. We have been talking only about pronouns. But don't give up. Most passages can be read correctly if you do two things. First, pay close attention to the context: Is the passage talking to an individual or to a group? Second, remember the culture to which the Bible was originally written. That culture elevated the group over the individual. The honor of a family or some other group to which an individual belonged was such a high responsibility of the individual that personal freedom was rarely considered. Thus Jesus' instruction to let our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no" overrides relative truth and the concept of "what is best for me." And the applications in Scripture are endless. So keep these two principles in mind when you study the Scriptures. Our tape set Biblical Relationships for Christians in Small Groups fills out these concepts on reading the Bible correctly. It is filled with "how to" information on Christian behavior, both in church fellowship and small group community. Why not get some of our materials and begin to read your Bible
right? You will benefit.
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