Power to the People!

One school of thought in church leadership is that preachers must not talk of Greek and Hebrew lest the congregation believe that Biblical interpretation is best left to the "experts."

While it is true that people who have gone to seminary or Bible college may be better equipped to understand the Bible, it is definitely NOT true that unless you go to said school you will not be able to interpret and understand the Bible at all. In fact, I have encountered people without any formal training to be extremely knowledgeable in God's Word through their own reading and personal study.

Honestly I think the problem lies in the fact that many Christians have not learned to feed themselves in the Word daily, for whatever reasons. They neither study nor read the Bible on their own. Is it any wonder that people will automatically defer to the "experts" then?

It will always be natural to question whether or not we are interpreting the passage correctly, but it should not cause you to abandon your own personal Bible reading and study. If anything it should cause you to read and study even more. Otherwise you'll always be at the mercy of someone else to interpret for you.

Don't forget that Satan knows the Bible better than you do, and he will do all he can to twist and distort God's Word in your mind to help you be at best ineffective and at worst, harmful to God's Kingdom-work. If you know your Bible well, then you will be able to counter his attacks just as Jesus did during his temptation in the wilderness.

If you are having difficulty with your Biblical interpretation, stick to the 20-20 rule. This rule means that you read 20 verses before and 20 verses after your passage. That way you will have a better grasp of the context in which the author wrote the verse or passage in question.

Reading big chunks of the Bible daily and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Word will change your life more than any sermon ever will. When you learn to feed yourself in the Word daily (as opposed to being fed weekly by someone else) spiritual maturity will not be far away.

Don't take God's Word for granted. Learn to love it and you will go far in your walk with Jesus.