The Importance of Self Interpretation

1 John 4:1-6  ESV

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.”

In this verse, God tells us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. Some of you may ask, what does He mean by test to spirits?

It is important that in whatever we do, whether we hear a sermon at church or see something online, that we step deeper into the scripture. And what I mean by this is finding your interpretation.

A preacher may quote a scripture, and then he will continue on with the sermon by interpreting the text. The truth of the matter is that anyone can interpret scripture differently. What may mean X to the preacher, may actually mean Z to you.

We often lean on these people, our pastors, our ministers, anyone who speaks from scripture. We take their every word as a message from God. The truth of the matter is that even if scripture is quoted, doesn’t mean the interpretation is from God, or that it applies the same to you.

“I go to church every Sunday” well, that’s great- but did you really get the message? Maybe God had a message deeper in that verse or the following verses just for you? Maybe we’d have a more meaningful lesson if we turned to the Bible instead of being satisfied with hearing someone else who’s studied the scripture.

The leaders in church may not always be as spiritually aligned as they ought to be, and no that doesn’t mean the devil is working through them.

Jesus even got tired, a leader in the world-Christian or political- is still a person. They get worn out like any other.

When you’ve worked all week, you need a break. Sometimes you may speak or act differently than you normally would, because your tired. We may think that a pastors job is Sunday service, but it’s much more than that. It’s tending to the people, in his/her fellowship or out. They minister all week, they study the scripture, they do more than we may think. Naturally, they get burnt out too.

Nonetheless, we don’t know if our preacher is worn out, we don’t know if there’s another message that God wants us to see, we just don’t know. So what does it hurt to open up our Bible when we get home to take a second look?

Find your interpretation, dig deeper, don’t let your message from God end at the end of Sunday service.

1 Peter 4:11

“Two things are evident: Either God gave us a book that we cannot understand and therefore left it up to us to decide what he had in mind, or God gave us a book that we can study and come to a knowledge of the truth. To understand it is to understand it right!”