Understanding the bias of scripture makes understanding scripture understandable. Some folks struggle with understanding all or part of God’s word. There are places where we read what God says and do not get it. We fail in our efforts to make sense of it. It doesn’t seem to fit into our rational thinking model.
So we look for insights, We read after other men and women who have pondered the same passages, some hundreds of years ago. What we often find is that they struggle with the very same verses. Understanding is difficult in places not because of the language or the subject matter. It may only be due to the perspective of the author.
It is important to remember that the Holy Scriptures are the writings of the infinite to the finite. Holiness speaks to those who have left the source of all which is Holy in the Bible. The purpose of scripture is to draw the wandering, misdirected soul back to the place where they fit into the plan and desire of He who alone is Holy. It is not a physical place but the physical reveals the mind of the spirit. You have heard it said that you are what you eat. That means all we consume becomes in many ways a part of who we are physically. The same is true for the Spirit. Speaking of Satan, the scripture says “as he thinks in his heart, so is he”. Surely this applies to every cognizant being for thinking is the life essence of the spirit. If there is no thought there is no spirit.
In this past paragraph we see the all of creation. God the creator is the source of all. By His spirit He has created and infused all others. He is Spirit and those who worship Him, worship in spirit and in truth. The angelic beings, good and evil, have been given one choice to be exercised at one point which is long past.
We see the result of that choice in those who obey and those who rebel. They are spirit beings revealed in uniquely physical bodies.
Thirdly there is the highest expression of His creative being, man. Man is both Physical in form and spiritual in existence. We are spiritual beings having a temporary physical life. Just as a baby in the womb prepares for the day it transcends into this air breathing life, so we as physical people are preparing for the transformation into the existence which was His design from the beginning.
God made the choice to give choice to only two aspects of His creation. Among all the planets and stars and oceans and animals and insects and microbial living organisms, only two get choice. The angels could choose once and they did. One third of the angelic host followed their pride and desire for creatures rather than the Creator.
The Human race, in Adam and Eve, are given many choices. There is one choice they can make many times until the final time they make the choice from which all other choices are defined. Many times man can say no, not now. Until the time when they say “Yes” or until the time to make that choice expires. Sometimes it appears that happens long before death. That choice alone allows us to see the perspective of the creator in scripture. When He comes at our invitation to dwell eternally within us, we are able to learn of Him that which reveals His truth in His Word. There will be many who appear to have understanding and even in some eyes mastery of the Bible. Not all have His perspective, for not all have His Spirit.
The human intellect is capable of tremendous unfathomable discovery even without God’s Holy Spirit. But is cannot be rightly associated with the creator or the universe they dwell in without making that one choice to believe and accept the creator’s perspective. The choice to reject is made many times. The choice to believe is made once and then reaffirmed many times. Not all who profess to have made that choice truly have, for by their fruits you shall know them.
God the Holy Spirit is the bias of Scripture. He delivered it through inspiration to Holy men who faithfully recorded with their unique perspective all they were charged with. Their unique perspective is that God the Holy Spirit in Heaven transmitted through God the Holy Spirit dwelling in them all the love He has for all His creation. His bias, the proper bias of scripture, is love.
God is love. He did not create love, He IS love. We use many semblances of love in every aspect of life. We proclaim affection, justice, compassion and many other emotional expression as love. We speak of tender love, tough love and timeless love. We know love only because He first loved us. We express love is myriad ways which both confirm and stretch our understanding of love. He alone is that which defines, correctly defines, the complete expression of love.
Without God’s perspective encapsulating all we know and think of love or scripture, we have no hope of understanding the holy nor the eternal. We cannot rightly divide the simplest passage with Him. We are like a battery without a charge and a sail without a breeze if we do not know the living God as both Savior and Lord. We exist but have no power to go beyond this short mortal existence. Even created as we are in His image we are as a painting or statue without breath or blood.
Start with a glass of pure H2O, water. Add a molecule of anything and it ceases to be pure. Yet a little may not be enough to impact its overall consistency. And even added daily, one bit at a time, it would be many years before it was enough to impact the water’s purpose and make up. What is you were adding arsenic to your source of daily drinking water? How long could you add to the reservoir before it would be sufficient to impact the taste or benefit of your daily drink? A little bit of arsenic is a healthy thing but too much of a good thing can be destructive. From our perspective the water is eventually unusable. From God’s bias, the water is sufficient to continually, eternally dissolve the damaging effects of such error.
Having God’s bias prevents all the lies of Satan and misunderstandings of well meaning men from impacting the fullness and message of His love expressed in His word. We may even pass down a crooked winding road for a time, but His truth will straighten us and reveal those who never were His. We use a verse when talking about rearing children which applies here. “Train up a child in the way in which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”. Even so the true believer must be trained by the Holy Spirit in the understanding of the scriptures. If man in his own power and understanding interprets scripture, he fails to add the essential ingredient to the recipe. The author Himself is essential to proper understanding. His bias is the bias of Scripture. Understanding the bias of scripture makes understanding scripture understandable. Without Him, without His bias, it is not possible.