3 Common Pitfalls in Interpreting God's Word

Reading the Bible without proper interpretation is of little (or no) use.

In this blog post, we'll see 3 common ways the God's Word is misinterpreted even by believers!

Those 3 ways are listed below:

1. Misinterpreting a verse in the context of your life situation

2. Taking the spiritual meaning in the physical sense

3. Believing the things described in the Bible are all approved by God

Ok, let's dive into the detail now.

Misinterpreting a verse in the context of your life situation

I have done this a lot myself in the past. I used to take a single Bible verse, twist it's meaning to my life situation, and expect God to turn things around.

For example, to get success in whatever I do, I keep recalling the Philippians 4:13 verse to keep myself motivated (especially when there are obstacles to reach that success).

Let's first see what's Philippians 4:13. The verse is quoted below:

"I can do all things through Him (Christ) which strengthens me."

When reading it at first, it reads like a motivational talk.

But we can get it's actual meaning, only when we read Philippians 4:13 in the context of the verses preceding and following it! It's so much more than mere motivation.

It's about staying contented in Christ at all times, irrespective of one's life situation, even admist losses and sufferings!

So, it's important to get the context of a verse (by reading the verses preceding and following it) before interpreting it. Merely twisting its meaning to your life situation is totally wrong!

Be sure to avoid this pitfall if you're used to clinging to a single verse without knowing the context on which it's given.

Now let's move on to the next pitfall.

Taking the spiritual meaning in the physical sense

The Bible is focused mainly on our spiritual well-being (i.e) ensuring our soul's eternal salvation through Christ.

The Bible's focus on our worldly well-being is comparatively much less.

On the contrary, we tend to give more importance to our worldly well-being and care too little about our spiritual well-being.

As a result of this, we end up interpreting the spiritual meanings in the physical (or worldly) sense.

For example, read Luke 6: 20-21, 24-25. BTW, remember the first pitfall. So, please read the verses preceding and following the verses in question, in order to interpret them correctly.

Done reading a few verses preceding and following the verses in question?

Now read Luke 6:20-21, 24-25 again. Do you think God is against the financially rich people and favoring the poor ones? If yes, you're falling into the second pitfall.

These verses are spoken from a spiritual standpoint. Blessed are you who are poor (in Spirit). Not the financially poor!

The poor in Spirit are those people who are aware they are weak in spirit, and longing for God's mercy and grace to strengthen them spiritually. Jesus is telling the people with such a realization are blessed when He tells - Blessed are you who are poor.

In order to avoid this pitfall, it's important to read the verse and understand if it's spoken from a spiritual or worldly sense.

Now let's move on to the next.

Believing the things described in the Bible are all approved by God

Another common pitfall is believing the things described in the Bible (even events pertaining to morally wrong things such as adultery, taking concubine, stealing etc) are all approved by God, just because a man chosen by God did them.

For example, Abraham taking Hagar as his concubine on the advise of Sarah doesn't mean God is not against taking concubines.

Just because a man in the Bible, who was chosen by God did something that's morally wrong, doesn't mean that God gave approval to that man (or to us, the readers) to do such things. All such wrong doings (even by the chosen men of God) had bad consequences, which clearly conveys God is just.

Even in Abraham's case, it backfired for his descendants through Isaac, as Ishmael's (Hagar's son with Abraham) descendants were causing problems to the Israel people later.

The discussion in this YouTube Video helped me recognize this pitfall.

So, the third pitfall is taking the description in the Bible as its prescription or God's command/approval to do something that's morally wrong!

How to avoid this pitfall? Simple! Just read the verse and figure out if its morally wrong.

The Bible gives us the truth to help us get God's salvation. It records some events in a descriptive way to help us understand God's heart better. It's our responsibility to avoid this pitfall by figuring out if a thing is descriptive or prescriptive in the Bible.