A Shallow Hermeneutic

Read Jeramiah 17:5-13 …

When one investigates the Scriptures there should be a desire to find THE TRUTH. Isn’t that God’s purpose throughout all of salvation history? To present THE TRUTH in such a way that one can understand, and not just understand but also to apply. Recently while listening to a sermon a gentleman was speaking about the interpretive process and he made the statement that the shallowest of hermeneutics was one that asked the question, “What does this mean to me?” On the surface such a question can have more than one application, but as the sermon progressed the crux of the speaker’s point became apparent. The question, “What does this mean to me” was really a stand in for the question, “How does this make me feel?”

Asking how something makes us feel can lead to anything from simple misunderstanding to full blown self-destruction. The writer of Hebrews notes that “we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect” (12:9), but if one only decided the truth of a situation on their feeling, one might never be able to get over the temporary pain of the correction. Never would one understand that the discipline inflicted was to promote a better or safer course of action in the young heart, which we know is full of foolishness (Prov. 22:15). Or worse, trusting our feelings about some actions can produce the worse possible outcomes. Who doesn’t know about the terrible outcomes that an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or pornography can produce? Most have seen the outcome in either themselves or in others. All of these have the initial capability to produce “good feelings,” sometimes even euphoric, but in the end one’s own feelings have betrayed them. Extreme cases? Perhaps, but that in no way diminishes the potential for self-destruction.

Looking into the Scriptures with the desire to find what makes one feel good can have the same disastrous effects. A simple but powerful verse proves the point. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; NKJV). The wonderful feeling produced by this verse has been taken by too many and used as a reason to stop any further investigation into the Scriptures. So many are encouraged to proclaim, “I believe” and to rest their salvation on a false sense of security; or “I feel good about my decision, I believe in Jesus, so it must be sufficient.” Yet the Scriptures present us with further truths, further instructions, that also must be heard and understood by the Christian. One’s feelings might lead to a grand start, but there is also the truth that one must grow past trusting only in one’s feelings to determine the meaning of scripture.

But there’s more to asking the question, “What does this mean to me?” When one speaks about the interpretive process there is also that part of the process that should produce some form of application. More application than simply feeling good, application that drives one to implement the Word in one’s life. When Jesus met the Rich Young Ruler (Matt. 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-27), there was not a question about the Ruler’s application of the Law to his own life, but there was a question of application of the Law in his life for the benefit of others. Without making the leap from hearing the message of the Scriptures to applying the message, there is no change. The same message is taught through Ezekiel. Ezekiel prophesied while the people were in Babylonian captivity, they would come to him – hear his words, observe his theatrics – but then, as the Lord says, “… they hear your words, but they do not do them” (Ezek. 33:32). They failed to make any application in their own lives.

So, we come back to the beginning. Should one feel good about what the Scriptures tell them? Absolutely! Should one use those feelings to be the sole interpretive lens for understanding the Scriptures? Absolutely not! A shallow hermeneutic seeks only to understand and apply the Scriptures that make one feel good about themselves. A deeper hermeneutic seeks to understand and apply the Scriptures so that change is achieved, sometimes even painfully achieved. Understanding and application of the Scriptures takes both the heart and the mind, feeling and reason.