God bless you and greetings in the name of Jesus Christ who showed his knowledge of God’s Word at an early age (Luke 2:46-47).
The original God-breathed Word, which came when Holy men spoke as they were moved the holy spirit (II Peter 1:21), is without error or discrepancy. God’s Word is inherently and inerrantly perfect. It is inherently perfect; meaning that perfection is an inseparable quality or characteristic of God’s Word. Perfection is innate or intrinsic. After all, if it is God’s Word, it would have to be perfect for God is perfect. It is perfect in and of itself. Man need not and cannot bring anything to it to perfect it.
It is also inerrantly perfect. It is fixed, having no mistakes, unable of being wrong. “Errant” means “roving,” “wandering,” “straying,” or “erring from what is right.” Regardless of what people may say about it, this wonderful Word of God, when rightly divided, will never lead us down the wrong road. We can always count on it and rely on it, for it is God’s perfect Word of truth.
Because it is inherently perfect, we approach the Word of God with reverence and awe. The magnificent 119th Psalm speaks, in the original texts, of God’s wonderful matchless Word in every verse. Psalm 119:161 says, “My heart standeth in awe of thy word,” and verse 117 also says, “…I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.”
We revere God’s Word, and He rewards us. It is the living Word of a living God. Can we add to it? Dare we subtract from it? If a Scripture is unclear to our understanding, dare we say, “Thus saith the Lord.” when we do not know? As workmen of the Word, we compare one word with another word and one Scripture with another Scripture. We do our absolute best to rightly divide it, and until we can “lock it in,” we say we do not know. Our reverence and respect for God’s communication of Himself in His Word demands that we be diligent to not bring our private interpretation into the Scripture.
Because it is inerrantly perfect, we give the utmost of diligence to rightly divide it. There cannot be any discrepancy or deficiency in God’s Word. The truthfulness and faithfulness of God guarantees that He would not set forth any passage in His Word that would contradict any other passage. Therefore, we may not expound, explain, or interpret any Scripture so as to be incongruous with, repugnant to, inconsistent with, or contradictory to any other Scripture. It all has to fit into one coherent, inerrant whole.
All apparent difficulties arise from not understanding what is written or an improper and inaccurate translation from an earlier text or the lack of the original text. The workman of the Word must allow the Word of God to interpret itself fitting one Scripture with another, each complementing and contributing to the whole of the royal tapestry of God’s Word.
All Scripture will interpret itself in one of three ways. The words of the Word will either interpret themselves in the verse or in the context or where it has been used before. These three keys will allow us to unlock the storehouse of God’s Word and let its beauty, comfort, and strength permeate our lives. To the casual or inattentive reader, the Bible may be very difficult to understand and rightly divide. But to the workman of the Word who is willing to pay attention to its detail and honestly approach it, it can be a most rewarding and fulfilling pursuit.
Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation, that deals with principles of Biblical exegesis. Exegesis is the critical explanation of a text or portion of a text from the Bible based on certain standards or established principles. Over the next few Wednesdays, we will look at some of these principles of hermeneutics that fall under the three basic categories of in the verse, in the context, and as it was used before.