Rightly Dividing the Word (4)

I rise before the dawning of the morning,
And cry for help;
I hope in Your word.
My eyes are awake through the night watches,
That I may meditate on Your word. Psalm 119.147, 148

So far
We’re considering a seven-faceted approach to rightly dividing the Word of God, so that we get the most out of Scripture in the time we spend there. We come to the Bible ready to submit to it as the Word of God. We are seeking Him and His will in the words His Spirit has recorded, and so we want to savor every one of them, tasting and chewing like a cow does it cud, or a dog does over a bone (Peterson), to pull out as much flavor and nourishment as we can.

Thus the Word dwells in us richly, and becomes the joy and rejoicing of our heart.

So far we’re just beginning to get into the Word in a way that will allow us to part the veil of our finitude and folly, so that we can glimpse the glory of God and be transformed. And there is a step further we’ll want to take. That is the step of diligently searching the Word for more light on the text before us.

Search the Scriptures daily
The people of Berea were commended in Acts 17.11 because they listened carefully to the Word of God from the Apostle Paul, and then devoted themselves to searching out the truths and implications of what they’d heard. Search the Scriptures to understand the Scriptures: This is the next facet of our approach to getting the most out of God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit is the One Who teaches us the Word of God. Paul says that He does this by “comparing” Scripture with Scripture (1 Cor. 2.12, 13; see the ESV margin note). The formal name for this is “the analogy of Scripture.” What it means is that we can understand a passage of Scripture better if we search out other passages that help us in understanding the one we’re considering. The more light we gain from other passages, the more the light of the passage before us will shine brightly into our soul.

For example, as we’re thinking about being a neighbor to someone we don’t even know – like the good Samaritan did – we remember Jesus saying that all the Law of God is given to teach us how to love Him and our neighbors. Perhaps there’s something in the Law to shed light on the situation posited in Jesus’ parable?
In fact, there is. In Exodus 21.18, 19 we read, “If men contend with each other, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to his bed, if he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted. He shall only pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed.” Overlay that passage to the story of the good Samaritan. He didn’t strike that guy and leave him wounded. It wasn’t his job to make sure he was “thoroughly healed,” or to pay for his restoration. In a sense, that portion of the Law of Moses, which this Samaritan would have known quite well, didn’t apply to him. But he took on the obligation of it anyway, because here was a situation in which love was demanded, and the Law of God guides us in how to love.

The Samaritan understood the Spirit of the Law, so that he was not bound merely by its letter.

We are our brother’s keeper, Cain’s petulant protest to the contrary notwithstanding. The Spirit of the Law, if not the letter, teaches us – the point Jesus was making – that any needy person within our reach is deserving of our love, even though we are not responsible for his hardship.

We could go elsewhere in Scripture and learn about such neighbor-love as well. For example, the love and generosity Boaz showed to Ruth, Abigail’s generosity to David and his men, and even Solomon’s wisdom in discerning the right mother of a disputed child. These are all examples of what it means to show love for our neighbors, following the Spirit of the Law of God and not just the letter. These were all certainly in Jesus’ mind as he rolled out His teaching in Luke 10. The more we search out God’s Word, using the analogy of Scripture, the better we’ll understand why Jesus’ teaching here makes sense and is perfectly in line with what the Bible teaches elsewhere.

Search the record
In addition to the analogy of Scripture, we can benefit from searching the teaching of our fathers in the faith, allowing the light of their understanding of the Word to inform our own thinking.

This discipline is referred to as the “analogy of faith,” because by it we search the heritage of sound Biblical instruction in order to help flesh out our understanding of God’s Word. And when we do this, looking to the wisdom of our fathers in the faith, we find gems like this, from Ambrose, Bishop of Milan in the fourth century. He asks us to consider this further insight about the good Samaritan and the nature of neighbor love: “Who is [this Samaritan] except he who descended from heaven, who also ascended to heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven? When he sees half- dead him whom none could cure before, like her with an issue of blood who had spent all her inheritance on physicians, he came near him. He became a neighbor by acceptance of our common feeling and kin by the gift of mercy” (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 7.74).

Of course! Jesus is the ultimate neighbor because He grants mercy to the undeserving – even to you and me.

Search the Scriptures, and search the record of sound teaching. If you do, you’ll find the light of God’s Word flooding your soul in ways that will help you to get the most out of your reading, meditating, and studying in the Bible.

For reflection
1.  What is the “analogy of Scripture”? How do you practice this? Why should you learn to make good use of this discipline? 


2.  Read quickly through Romans 3. How can you see Paul using the analogy of Scripture here? 


3.  What is the “analogy of faith”? Why should you learn to make good use of this discipline? 

Next steps – Transformation: What are some ways you could make better use of the analogy of Scripture and the analogy of faith?

T. M. Moore

To learn more about understanding and using the Bible, enroll in the course, Introduction to Biblical Theology. It’s free and online, and you can study at your own pace or with friends. To learn more and to register, click here. This week’s study is Part 7 of a series on The Word of God, and is available as a free download by clicking here.

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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.