My Approach to Scripture: Inspiration, Interpretation, and Obedience

When I was 17 and began to take Christianity seriously, I started listening to Eric Ludy of Ellerslie Discipleship School. Technically, I have always been Christian because I grew up Catholic, but then it became something different. Attending Ellerslie was important for me because the overarching emphasis of the school was the primacy of Scripture and Christ and him crucified, which have been my highest values ever since.

A Working Definition

I’m a bit of a pilgrim regarding theological views, denominations, and influences on my thinking. The overriding perspective is that Scripture is authoritative for those seeking to be faithful to God. I have a recency bias toward scholarship, but I believe that Scripture is an intentionally formed compilation of God’s interaction with humanity. Meaning, Scripture is recorded by humans under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of teaching how God interacts with humanity.

We see this interaction with humanity most specifically in the story of Ancient Israel. However, there is a lot of evidence in Scripture that God was interacting with more than just Israel. Paul seems to suggest this in Romans 1:18–20. I lean toward the thinking that God reveals himself to people where they are. God is responding to humanity to commune with them and be partners in creation. The challenge is that humanity rarely partners with him and thus, while God is intentionally interacting with everyone, relatively few are truly responsive to him.

God’s response that is recorded throughout Scripture is governed by this heart of communion. The creation narrative of Genesis 1 shows that God desires harmony among creation. From that point of view, I view Scripture to be authoritative, which means not our interpretations, but Scripture itself holds authority. Yet, the text inherently requires interpretation. It has objective features that require logical reasoning and examination to be understood in a manner that makes sense of the features.

Each text itself bears witness to intentional composition for specific emphasis within each book or piece. Jude is its own confined work within a broader canon to emphasize the same overarching values and beliefs: humans communing with God. This is true of each of the 65 books (and then Psalms is a multitude of individual works).

Notes on How I Read Scripture

1. Humans play an active and intentional role in the creation of Scripture. This is God partnering with humanity in fulfilling their roles as God’s image. This coincides with the Incarnation of the Word, that God became flesh, meaning that Scripture itself is composed from those in flesh.
2. Scripture is inherently social; a communication between persons (God and His people, God’s prophets and God’s people, etc.). Scripture is about God’s relationship with humanity, and those humans’ relationship with other humans and the rest of creation. Scripture is both narrative and philosophy. It includes several different genres, but all of them are referring to relationships. Most of Scripture is written toward a communal audience (Israel, churches, young men, young women, etc.). The Biblical logic I have for this is that 2 Tim 3:16 is quite clear and specific about the purpose of Scripture: to make believers equipped for every good work. Good works are the fulfillment of loving God and neighbour, and thus, the social interactions of God’s people are the setting for obedience. Good, healthy, and harmonious relationships are the goal of Scripture.
3. Literalism plays a small role in good interpretation. I want to emphasize the importance of the text being the text. Literalism is often conceived in a way that limits our imagination in unintentional ways. When we over-emphasize literalism, we fall prone to treating Scripture as a type of textbook of facts about God and morality, rather than a diverse expression that guides our relationship with Him. In a culture focused on factuality, we often lose sight of the true authority of Scripture by emphasizing ideas that are not the point of the text itself.
4. I place little weight in traditional readings of Scripture. Culture is relative and we are all subject to our own backgrounds and influences, including the kind of information we have access to. With that said, I’m generally very text focused. Some appreciate this, sure, but others will find it to be a challenge. The result is this: I am going to disagree with you somewhere down the line, and I’m probably going to feel very confident in my view. I always leave room for faithful practice to co-exist with theology I find to not be reflected in the text of Scripture. Agreement does not mean faithfulness; you must be faithful to how you see and hear God speaking to you through Scripture. It is the same for me.

The Response: Obedience

Obedience is the key response to Scripture. This can be difficult given what I just noted in point 4. The challenge mostly comes from the need to prioritize overarching values as we attempt to understand specified commands. In the West, we tend to prioritize specific statements or commands, rather than the conglomeration of re-stated principles and statements that are also reflected in narrative forms. The conception of selfless harmony is the predominant focus and concern of New Testament writers, so each specific command falls under this contextual/canonical principle.

Ultimately, obedience is an interpretive exercise that must be done with the Spirit. We interpret the principles and commands of Scripture, then we interpret our own context. This logical progression opens avenues for obedience, and the Spirit breathes into our action to bring life to the world.

Becoming Faithful is precisely about this kind of deliberative obedience to Scripture: being formed by a deep understanding of the things that God wants us to feel, believe, think, and ultimately, do through relationship with him. All of those factors together reflect the transformation of our whole identity into the image of Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Scripture. In this way, we work our way, one step at a time, to fulfilling Scripture ourselves as Christ’s image.

Note: If you are interested in more detailed examinations from scholarly types of people, I’ll provide some resources in the next post. There are some very wonderful people doing some incredible interpretive work that is often overlooked by popular material and content.