Monday, June 25, 2012
Misunderstood Bible Passages, Part 31 of 47
TEXT: "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
IDEA: One reason we misinterpret or misapply a passage is that we often don't consider the literary genre in which it is written.
PURPOSE: To help listeners be aware that different kinds of biblical literature have to be interpreted in different ways.
What are the different kinds of literature that you find in the Bible?
Do you read them all the same way?
I. All of us make adjustments for different kinds of modern literature.
Let me give you a series of statements and you tell me what kind of literature you think of:
- Once upon a time
- Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today
- How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
- The party of the first part owes the party of the second part
- There was a certain man
- As the year began, no one living then would have imagined that the year 1776 would be the most crucial in the formation of the new country
Do you think most people today would interpret all those statements in the same way?
Do you think we have to make the same kind of adjustments when we read the Bible?
What differences would there be?
II. Let me give you a statement from the Bible: Prov 22:6—"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."
What kind of literature is that taken from?
Do you think all of us are tempted to read the proverbs of the Bible in a way different from the way we read the proverbs we use in modern life?
Proverbs in modern life are not dealt with as absolute statements or promises.
Look before you leap. Seize the day. He who hesitates is lost. A stitch in time saves nine.
Do you think Proverbs 22:6 is a promise or an absolute statement?
What difference would it make?
What problems do you have if you take the proverb as an absolute promise?
