KNOWING THE BIBLE
Bible Reading: Mt 5
Read and pray: “Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go first be reconciled to your brother; and then, returning, present your offering." (Matthew 5:23,24)
DO NOT SACRIFICE ANY PORTION OF THE WORD
When defining a truth, sometimes many related verses indicate a certain meaning, but two or three of them cannot be explained that way. One cannot say that, because only one or two verses cannot be explained in that way, they can therefore be sacrificed and the exposition based on the majority of the verses. If a person does that, he is sacrificing some verses. We cannot act like this.
Once one or two verses do not agree with a certain interpretation, we have to abandon that interpretation. We must respect all portions of the Bible. Only when an interpretation harmonizes with the whole Bible can that interpretation be considered reliable. Any verse that forbids a certain interpretation of the truth must not be sacrificed. Instead, that particular interpretation must be abandoned, and we must wait for more revelation from God. If we study the Bible in this way, we will not easily fall into error.
ALL APPOSITIVE EXPRESSIONS ARE EQUAL
There are many expressions in the Bible that are in apposition¹ to others. All these appositive expressions are equivalent and not different. For example: Matthew 5 speaks of nine beatitudes. There it says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”. These are paired expressions, where the first expression matches the second.
In this case, in each beatitude, there is first the condition for the blessing, and then the blessing itself. All paired expressions are equivalent. If the first part of an expression specifies a condition, then all the first parts of these paired expressions also specify conditions. If the second part of an expression specifies a blessing, then the second part of all these expressions will also specify a blessing. This is another principle or rule.
When interpreting the Bible, one must not be restricted by the background, nor ignore it. For example: in the sermon the Lord gave on the mount, many words of Jewish background are spoken. The Lord says: “Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you” (Mt 5:23). That offering at the altar is entirely based on the Jewish background. If you want to understand the original meaning of that word, you cannot disregard the background of that time.
The Jews presented their offerings at the altar with the purpose of drawing near to God and having fellowship with Him. If you take this principle, you will see that the Lord’s words refer to a man offering something before God and having fellowship with Him. Therefore, we cannot neglect the matter of background, but we must seek to understand it.
On the other hand, we must not be restricted by the background. We cannot teach people to bring offerings to the altar simply because the Lord Jesus spoke such a word. If you are limited by the background, you will have a great problem. Therefore, we must see that we cannot neglect the matter of background; if we do, we will not understand the exact meaning of the Bible. On the other hand, we need to be careful not to be bound by the background, leading us into error.
The words of God to man are divided into dispensations. Some words were spoken by God to man under the dispensation of law. Other words were spoken by God to man under the dispensation of grace. When we try to understand these words, we must discern the different dispensations. We must not apply to the dispensation of grace the words spoken in the dispensation of law.
This is the mistake of the Seventh-day Adventists regarding the matter of keeping the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath is a commandment that God gave to man in the dispensation of law. When the era of grace arrives, it is something totally different. But the Seventh-day Adventists hold on to Exodus 20 and say that since God clearly spoke about the Sabbath, we have to keep it today. It is true that God spoke about keeping the Sabbath, but that is something in the dispensation of law and not in the dispensation of grace.
There is another example. In Psalms we are told that our children in the flesh are blessings from God. Please remember that this is a word from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, this is no longer true. You cannot find any passage in the New Testament that says that children in the flesh are blessings.
Although I cannot say that children in the flesh are now curses, I dare to affirm that they are responsibilities and lessons. Today, in the dispensation of grace, the true blessing is the spiritual children.
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¹ Apposition = the use of a noun, or noun phrase, as an apposition. Apposition = a name, or equivalent expression, that fulfills the same syntactic function as another element to which it refers.
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