As believers, we should consider from time to time, what’s the purpose of going to church? What’s the purpose of learning God’s word? Is it for community? Is it to understand the Bible and God more?
It’s good to take time to reflect on our current lives of faith. Are we content with them? And if we’re not, then what should we do? When we go to church and talk about God or the Bible, do we understand everything we learn?
Personally, despite having attended church all my life, my Biblical knowledge was iffy. This left me with a constant feeling of lack, a void. However, things changed when I met a Bible instructor from the church of New Heaven and New Earth, Shincheonji. They helped me look at the Bible in a clear and straight-forward perspective, and that helped me bring all of my confusion to light. And from that, I finally was able to understand things I’ve never understood before.
But that brings me back to learning about the Bible in church. I hope your pastor does this, but let’s consider…when we learn about the Bible, are things explained clearly? With context? Does it bring us closer to God? Does it help us understand Him more? Or is it just an explanation to help us get through another week, focusing on us living our best lives?
Here are a few reasons why the Bible can be hard to understand, even though we talk about it every week.
#1 Sermons are based on a specific verse(s), while leaving out the overall context.
We all know this is a big and common criticism of Christianity. That we just cherry-pick verses to fit how we feel or what we want to hear. All of us are probably guilty of doing this at one point or another. And that’s because a lot of the time, the content in the Bible makes us uncomfortable. It makes us reflect on ourselves and we see things we don’t always like. Who can honestly say that they’re living a perfect life of faith that God would acknowledge?
God gave us the Bible to be able to understand Him more. To know His heart and learn about what He’s been doing to rescue His people since sin entered the world. Because we have sin, the Bible teaches us how to behave in more godly ways. When you read the Bible, you should be compelled to act, to change. Apostle James, in his letter to early Christians who were also learning to become more holy and like Christ, wrote,
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
James 1:22-24
We must make sure we are reading the Bible in the context it was meant for. Not just finding a verse that makes us feel better or one that validates something we want to do. More often than not, the action asked of us from the Bible will require some discomfort.
#2. Some parts of the Bible are given a lot of focus and attention, while others are left out completely.
Why do you think God has included the Old Testament along with the New Testament? Especially since most of us are Christians and people of the New Testament time? You can read more about that here. The fact that there are two testaments in the Christian Bible means God must have had a purpose for including each and every book.
Some churches only focus on the Law of Moses and the Old Testament. Others only focus on the New Testament and teachings of Jesus. Some only talk about verses that are encouraging and comforting. Others only pick out verses to make people feel guilty. When’s the last time your church took a deep dive into Revelation? And if it was recently, did you leave the sermon feeling hopeful and excited for the second coming of Jesus Christ? Or were you feeling the eminent destruction of the world as we know it?
God has a specific plan and purpose that He has been working towards for the past 6,000 years. For all Christians, as followers of Christ, we need to know what happened in the past so we don’t make the same mistakes as those who came before us. But we also need to know what was prophesied for the future so that we can be ready and waiting to go wherever God calls us to.
Jesus even told us that he gave us these words in advance so that when the proper time comes we would believe and follow him:
“I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe.”
John 14:29
#3. When things are explained, the answer is unclear, vague, or doesn’t bring us into deeper understanding about God.
Lots of times while I was in church, if I asked for clarification or an answer to a question I had, the answer would usually be, ‘nobody can fully interpret the meaning of the scriptures’. Questioning things isn’t wrong. Seeking to know God on a deeper level is actually what He wants. It’s actually vital to our salvation as we can see in Hosea 4:6 when God says, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” God wants us to know Him, to understand Him. In church, we should be taught how to know God through the Bible which is His own Words.
Imagine you wrote a book about yourself with the intent that people would read it and get to know you. But instead, someone grabs a single sentence out of your book and tries to interpret it according to their own understanding and personal opinion. Then they start telling others about their interpretation of you. All of this happening while the explanation you gave is written right there in your book. How would you feel?
If You Don’t Understand the Bible, Then Ask!
When we don’t understand something in the Bible, when we feel that tug to draw closer to God, we need to seek Him out in prayer. Pray to God for understanding. Ask Him to reveal His will, His heart to you. Those who seek God will find him (Proverbs 8:17).
There was once an Ethiopian eunuch who struggled to know what the prophet Isaiah wrote in his scroll concerning ‘someone who will die a certain death’. An angel of the Lord sent Philip, a disciple of Jesus, to go explain to the eunuch that the prophecy was about Jesus. From there, the eunuch learned about Christ and believed in him (Acts 8:26-38). The eunuch’s seeking heart did not go unnoticed by God. He provided an opportunity for the eunuch to learn the true meaning and understanding of His word.
Like the spiritually seeking Ethiopian eunuch, if we crave wisdom, we must sincerely submit that request to God through prayers. God, who sees our inmost desires (1 Corinthians 2:10), will open up opportunities to learn the Word. We ought only to trust that He will grant our requests in His time.
God wants you to be able to understand him. And he wants you to grow in your knowledge of the Bible. As we reflect on our lives of faith and even on our time at church, let’s consider if we’re being fed spiritually in a way that helps us grow and that satisfies our spirit’s desire to know its Creator. Let us never forget the true reason why we carry out a life of faith and attend church. Let us always keep our eyes on God.
Written by Your Soul and Heaven
Check out this other post on how our lives of faith should look according to the Bible!
Do You Want to Be Known as a Sheep?
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Such a nice calm relaxing blog
Thank you!