READ WITH YOUR EARS
Simply memorizing the words of the Bible in our minds is not the same thing as studying to store God’s spoken word in our hearts. Learning and memorizing the literal words it contains is not a substitute for faith which comes by hearing God’s word. Hearing by faith and the mental work of learning must go together. And then, after God’s voice teaches us how to distinguish the truth from the lies by understanding the symbolic interpretations of the written words, we must apply what we learn.

When we apply what we learn, however, it will not be in a way that is just religious performance and ritual to prove to God, others, and ourselves how righteous and spiritual we are. It won’t be a simple “what would Jesus do” kind of response where we make a literal interpretation of what Jesus or another Bible character did and then make a religious doctrine and ceremonial practice out of it. Rather, we will do it because the Spirit of God in our heart instructs on what to say and do and put no trust in the teachings of false prophets who masquerade as servants of righteousness.

God”s view on application of Bible study is affirmed in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which says that all scripture is useful for instruction in righteousness. This is a scripture that we can interpret literally. We find an important corollary about Bible study in 2 Timothy 2:15 which says that we should study to show God that we can handle the Bible correctly. The way we see it, the challenge to “handle” the word of truth clearly indicates that it is possible to wrongly interpret the Bible. That means we want to be careful in our study so that we will discern good from evil.

That the Bible might contain evil is an outrageous idea until we understand that God uses the word evil to represent religion. The easiest way to grasp this is to remember that The Law Is A Stumbling Block that causes us to sin. What causes us to stumble is religious leaders and lying scribes, who, being motivated by personal gain, have done evil to us and enticed us to sin.

The way we see it, the prospect of stumbling over the law suggests that sorting out the good from the evil in the Bible is a matter of life and death. It is the challenge to handle the word of God accurately by distinguishing between the holy and profane, and between clean and unclean things and animals. The problem is, however, that we have not been trained to distinguish good from evil or the clean from the unclean, but we have been trained to regard the entire literal Bible as truth. We need help, therefore, to discern spiritual truth, on which we can and should act, from evil, which we should not do.

Few would argue that God’s word is truth. Fewer still understand that it is God’s spoken word that is truth. Any word spoken or written by man is suspect when it comes to truth. We have no assurances in the Bible that the written word is always truth. In fact, what the Bible says about itself is that the letter kills while the spirit gives life. Thus we always seek to understand the spirit of truth in the symbolic interpretations of the Bible so we can apply those to our lives. And, accordingly, we always want to identify and discard the lies that lead to death that are represented in literal interpretations.

The way we see it, the letter of the law kills because we cannot, indeed should not, trust that what others report (i.e. preaching, teaching) about what God said. Whatever they speak and write is filtered through their personal, intellectual understanding which is based on their religious training. That is why God said that we should not put our trust in men who are ungodly shepherds, lying scribes and false prophets and priests who only know what they have been taught by other ungodly shepherds, lying scribes and false prophets and priests. And, against God’s will, they dream up lying divinations and oracles to keep their gullible followers entertained enough to keep coming back with money to pay for the religious show.

This warning about trusting man applies to the Bible as well as any other verbal or written interpretations of what God has said. So we must be very careful in our interpretations of what is written in the Bible. Many people with various religious motives have influenced what is written there. We do not want to make the mistake of being misled by religious motives which are revealed writing or speaking. The only reliable way to learn about God is to be taught by his spirit. But we do not totally reject the literal Bible because it is a tutor that leads us to faith even though the written law itself leads to death.

If God thought that the written Bible or human teachers would be able to competently teach about him, there would have been no need for the New Covenant where his spirit teaches us all things. The Old/First Covenant religious system of priests offering sacrifices and prophets teaching would have been acceptable. But, words written by men, human priests and prophets are not able to interpret and report the depths of God found in the symbolism and mysteries that exist in the literal Bible. What they find there are only shadows of the truth that only God’s spirit can reveal. Human teachers work with words while God works with power.

So we see that Bible study is not as simple as we might have imagined it to be. There are conditions and traps that affect reading, understanding and application. God did not make learning about him easy. Answers only come to New Covenant disciples (i.e. learners) who continue asking, seeking and knocking in their passionate, ongoing search for truth.

Those who interpret the Bible literally, on the other hand, are unable to recognize spiritual truth when they see it with their natural eyes because they cannot discern good (i.e. spiritual truth) from evil (i.e. literal truth).  They may be sincere and zealous in their efforts to learn, but they do not have eyes to see or ears to hear spiritual truth that comes from hearing the voice of God. Their faith is in the literal laws they read and understand in the literal words of the Bible. They do not have the kind of faith that comes by hearing God’s spiritual words when he writes his spiritual law on their hearts.