Many Christians today consciously or subconsciously let their personal experience determine their interpretation of the Bible.
It’s easy to make that mistake. Any Bible study group accidentally encourages it when they proceed on the basis of, “What does this verse or text mean to you?” A Bible passage’s significance or application might vary from person to person—but the passage means what it means.
It honestly shouldn’t matter what a Bible passage “means” to us until we determine what God meant by it in the original context. And only when we are syncing our understanding with what God meant in the original context should we apply it to ourselves. By skipping that crucial step—sincerely seeking what God meant to communicate—we too easily let our feelings and experience determine our interpretation.
Perhaps I’m calling out something that isn’t a problem in many of our churches today—but I fear it is a very real problem. Do any of these sound familiar?
- I need to be baptized for the forgiveness of my sins? But I already feel saved without it.
- Sex only in marriage? But we’re in a committed relationship. In fact, we’re engaged.
- Evangelize? But this person already seems like they’re saved, even if they don’t technically believe in Jesus.
- Tithing? But I feel good giving $10 from each paycheck.
- Regular church attendance? But I feel I can’t say no to these other weekend obligations.
We’ve heard that Christians can sometimes be “practical atheists,” but I’m seeing more and more “practical postmodernists” among us. “Postmodernism” is a philosophy that views truth claims suspiciously, favoring a personal or tribal experiential view of “truth.” We can see its influence wherever truth becomes whatever resonates with how people feel—validated or invalidated based on their personal experience.
“We’ve heard that Christians can sometimes be ‘practical atheists,’ but I’m seeing more and more ‘practical postmodernists’ among us.”
Whatever the point of dispute with God, they, not God, become the arbiter. Their discipleship becomes a convenience, not a commitment; an opinion, not an obligation. Obedience becomes an accommodation, not a necessity; an alternative, not an intention.
The Scripture instead teaches that obedience to God begins at the point where God says one thing and we believe another. In Matthew 21:28-32 Jesus told of two sons whose father ordered them to work in his vineyard. The first initially refused but ultimately complied. The second initially agreed but ultimately refused.
When Jesus asked the Jewish leaders which son obeyed the father, they picked the first. Jesus didn’t correct their assumption because he had another perspective to reinforce. However, neither son obeyed the father as fathers demand obedience, particularly in a society where fathers exercised complete control of their households and children. In reality, both sons disobeyed their father. The first offered an empty promise—I will; the second offered an empty defiance—I won’t. Neither rendered the instant, unquestioning obedience the father’s authority deserved and their submission demanded. For obedience is never mere talk.
In Gethsemane, Jesus dramatized his teaching. Saying, in essence, “I don’t want to die,” he also added, “Your will be done.” He didn’t say, “I’ve come to believe I should go on living—and I think you should agree.”
“The Scripture instead teaches that obedience to God begins at the point where God says one thing and we believe another.”
When our feelings contradict God’s word, whose word will we believe, accept, and obey? Pastors and church elders must stress the absolute necessity of following God’s Word, however much it contradicts our experience. We are going to be judged by what God’s Word says is true, not by what we think is true.
Christ’s church must necessarily be doctrinally strong, evangelistically active, and personally attractive. But it all starts with strong doctrine. Luke noted that the church faithfully practiced a particular regimen, Acts 2:42, but he put apostolic teaching first. That was no accident, not in an ancient world that regularly practiced a personalized religion that made the gods as relevant or meaningful as their devotees chose, but not at all in charge of belief and behavior.
In a terrible sin against grace, Christians presuppose forgiveness even when their discipleship hasn’t been a constantly maturing experience. Whatever convictions they had at conversion often remain their convictions, however much they have learned since.
This is seen glaringly in many people’s attitude toward baptism. Are we as eager to grow in discipleship as we are to claim salvation by grace? The unimmersed often say they were saved before they were baptized, therefore they don’t need to be baptized. Thus, they and their experience, not God’s Word, determine the meaning of baptism. They don’t stop to realize that God may forgive them, whatever their state of ignorance, if in their ignorance they did all they knew—but once having been educated in God’s Word on the subject, God expects them to advance in their knowledge, not remain in their ignorance.
“Are we as eager to grow in discipleship as we are to claim salvation by grace?”
To be faithful to grace that saves us, whatever our ignorance, we are obligated to grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, whatever demands it makes in changing our beliefs!
When we learn more of Scripture than we’ve known previously, God expects us to accept and incorporate the increase. He certainly holds us accountable for it, whether or not we embrace and practice it, so we may as well embrace and practice it. In whatever way we learn more—whether it’s about baptism, personal habits, tithing—that becomes part of our accountability. 
I remember a young man who came to Bible college. He stayed only a few weeks, then returned home, sorry for all he had learned, wishing he had remained at home, ignorant of the new truths revealed in classes. The next semester he returned to Bible college, and when asked the reason, he forthrightly admitted the misery he experienced once back in his hometown and church. As he continued to ponder the issues, he realized that he would now be judged by any new knowledge he had acquired in Bible college: he could never again be judged by the ignorance he once experienced.
That is the essence of New Testament discipleship.
The purpose of salvation and discipleship isn’t merely union with God but completeness of our faith. It isn’t just being married to God, but being an increasingly compatible mate, always improving, learning, growing.
“It isn’t just being married to God, but being an increasingly compatible mate, always improving, learning, growing.”
Do we as readily accept and practice what deepens our discipleship as what assures our forgiveness? If God saves us in our ignorance, despite our ignorance, it isn’t too much to expect us to become obedient to all the greater knowledge that exposure to Christ brings.
Liberals obviously aren’t the only ones who pick and choose what Bible texts they embrace and love. This warning certainly needs to be re-emphasized in the evangelical church whose members and attenders hear palatable, relatable preaching that does little to question their own personal experience as the litmus of Bible authority.
As disciples of Jesus, we need to see truth-speaking as an important way of serving each other. Christian servanthood is God-centered, Christ-directed, Holy Spirit-inspired. It acknowledges Christ’s superior purpose and our need to be accountable—which is the forgotten expectation in many churches. Servanthood is doing what’s best for others, even if it cause them temporary pain.
Thus, Paul’s rebuke to Peter at Antioch was Paul being Peter’s servant, helping him see and admit the error of his way. Servanthood is doing what we’d rather not, as Jesus in Gethsemane accepted God’s will even when he’d rather not. Servanthood is accepting biblical teaching that expands our spiritual knowledge, though it demands we accept correction and yield obedience our previous position didn’t impose. Servanthood is doing what seems to humble us beneath our peers, even when we know we’re at least equal to them.
“As disciples of Jesus, we need to see truth-speaking as an important way of serving each other.”
The spiritual principle involved in servanthood therefore is to determine the validity of our spiritual knowledge and experience by the teaching, example, and life of Jesus and his apostles, not by that of a human leader, teacher, church, or our own experience.
Jesus and his apostles are the ultimate authority in all spiritual issues. Capable but inferior leaders aren’t. It’s what God’s Word says—not what a church teaches, a revered leader teaches, or what we personally believe. Everything and everyone else can fail us, but the Bible never misdirects or misinforms us. It will only and always instruct, educate, and enlighten us in God’s truth. That’s why we must accept the biblical principle that our personal experience isn’t what makes God’s truth true or false. His word exists completely apart from our knowledge or experience.
God’s Word is like the final game of the 2006 World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals won the series 4-1 over the Detroit Tigers. Detroit didn’t like the result, especially as the favorite team, but that didn’t change the result. That ’06 outcome won’t ever be different, not a year from now, or fifty years from now. It’s been decided by a contest of teams on the field.
Just so, at times we may not like what God has said. We may wish he had said it differently. But nothing we think or feel makes the difference. He didn’t ask us what he should say and he won’t be moved by our wish to have it somehow different.
