The Bible Isn't Difficult to Understand
Be Strong, Be Well — Friday, July 17
If you read something today or heard someone speak, and you processed this information, stored it away for future reference or acted upon it as needed, then you used the mental abilities God gave you to reason and come to the necessary conclusion.
The same is true in reading the Bible or hearing it preached and taught. God intended for His message to us through the scriptures, to be readily understood. He gave humankind the mental capabilities necessary to reason properly and come to the proper conclusions of His will for us.
God didn’t make Bible interpretation difficult. The requirement of understanding Bible teaching is on the same level as people to people communication of important information. We listen. We reason. We draw the proper conclusion. We act upon it.
There’s no reason to make Bible study a difficult thing to do. Now Peter did say, some things (emphasis on some) of Paul’s writings were hard to understand. But notice the emphasis, “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
The wisdom Paul had and the words he wrote in his epistles, were given by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:4-7; 2 Peter 1:20, 21). Whatever the Holy Spirit gave Paul, he gave to all who will take the time to read it.
“...how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Ephesians 3:3, 4). “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17).
Remember, it will be the “untaught and unstable people” who will mishandle the interpretation of the Scriptures “to their own destruction.”
As we have said many times, anyone can know the truth if they really want to know. —Chris