Hermeneutics of Convenience (7)

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ isthe end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.Romans 10.1-4

A classic case
The Jewish teachers and theologians of Jesus’ day present a classic case of the hermeneutics of convenience. Enslaved by the Romans, they clung to their religious beliefs and the social structures these prescribed as a way of preserving their dignity against the humiliations of an Edomite puppet king, having to pay taxes to Caesar, and the presence everywhere of Roman soldiers and petty officials. They looked upon their traditions as making them righteous in comparison to the barbarians in their midst, and they, with all zeal and some good intentions, subjugated their own people to their interpretations and traditions, thus enslaving and misleading them, all in the name of the Lord.

Thus, being servants of Rome, they made all their Jewish brethren servants of a tradition which, ostensibly grounded in the Law of God, was in fact a mere human contrivance, put in place for the convenience of men.

Blindness to their traditions, and to their supposed infallibility in knowing the will of God, caused them to miss the Messiah when He appeared in their midst, opening the truth of God’s Word with the true key of interpretation.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day searched the Scriptures, because, as Jesus explained, they believed that what they read there – the righteousness of the Law – was the way to eternal life (Jn. 5.39). But, as Jesus elsewhere explained (Matt. 22.29), and as Paul affirms in our text, they were mistaken, because, blinded by their socially- and culturally-induced prejudices and preconceptions, they did not really know the Scriptures, and they did not know the power of God. They did not begin their search for dignity, meaning, and life from the Scriptures themselves, from their plain meaning, but from the prejudices and predispositions which emerged from their cultural circumstances. They read their Bibles through the eyes of culture and personal preference, rather than through the eyes of God and Christ.

The result, over the course of a century prior to Jesus and Paul, was the imposing of a social structure that was agreeable to Rome – the ultimate pragmatists in such matters – and comfortable for the Jewish leaders, who feared losing their place of social significance more than offending their God (cf. Jn. 11.47, 48).

Loving the blind
It seems strange to say that these theologians did not know the Scriptures, but we recall this is Jesus’ judgment, not ours. They knew a good deal of Scripture, that much is clear. And they knew how to twist the Scriptures to support their preferred views and schemes. But in so doing, they were mistaken, as Jesus observed, and the power of God for love eluded them.

We note that Paul, like Jesus Who wept for the blindness of the Jews, neither despised nor condemned these interpreters and their benighted followers; instead, he loved them, pled and argued with them, and subjected himself to their anger and scorn. He never ceased proclaiming the Kingdom and righteousness of God (Acts 28.30, 31), which are in Jesus, Who alone is the end of God’s Law.

A proper hermeneutic
A proper hermeneutic begins, not with social and cultural conditions and how we define ourselves against and within these, but with Jesus, as revealed throughout Scripture, and the Law and righteousness of God, as interpreted by the Prophets and Apostles and consummated in Jesus. To serve God and Jesus Christ we must begin with God and Jesus Christ and follow the plain meaning of the Word of God and Christ as this is revealed in Scripture.

Any other starting point for interpreting the Word of God will be imposed on the Word from outside the Word, rather than derived from Scripture under the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it will always have to bend and twist the Scriptures to support and endorse the conclusions, views, or practices implicit in whatever may be the preferred interpretive key or set of the saw. All who allow their understanding of Scripture to be shaped by abstract principles imposed on the Bible from beyond its pages will end up serving the views and interpretations of men, and not of God.

If we want to serve God, by loving Him and our neighbors, we must begin with God, in His Word, following the plain meaning of the text as it points to Jesus Christ and the way of obedience. If we allow our culture, preference, or charismatic leaders to define the terms by which we read and study our Bibles, we will no longer be serving God but merely the interests of self-love, by twisting God’s Word to make it agree with or endorse whatever opinion or practice we prefer.

In our reading and study of the Bible, we will either serve God, allowing Him to explain the terms of love and to guide and empower us for obedience. Or we will serve something outside the Bible, something from the spirit of the age or the temper of the times, something that will deceive us about the true nature of love and trap us in human perspectives and schemes.

For reflection
1.  If we will not serve Jesus Christ, as He speaks to us from His Word, we will serve someone or something else. Do you agree? Explain.

2.  What are some ways that things from outside the Bible – from culture or the times, for example – shape the way people read and understand the Bible? Is this a good thing?

3.  We need to apply the Scriptures to the culture and the times in which we live. But we must not try to make Scripture conform to the culture and the times. Suggest some ways of doing the one and avoiding the other.

Next steps – Conversations: How could Jesus say, and Paul insist, that these religious leaders didn’t “know” their Bibles? Is it possible that some leaders and teachers today don’t know their Bibles, either? Talk with some Christian friends about these questions.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.