Interpreting the Bible: New Testament Interpretation

Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

God has made it very clear in the Scriptures how important it is for us to properly interpret what He has said. If we want to be found pleasing in God's sight, we must handle His word properly. Let us consider how we ought to interpret the New Testament so as to be workmen who are not ashamed.

As always, we must first read to understand the text, considering the author and the message. Before we begin to directly apply passages from the New Testament to our lives, however, we must first establish the level of relevancy of the particular passage to ourselves. A good guideline is to consider all passages relevant to our lives unless the context provides a good reason to the contrary. Many passages are very relevant, such as Galatians 5:18-24, Philippians 2:5-11, and many others: while Paul may have written such things to particular churches in the first century, they are just as relevant to us today. Other passages, like Romans 2:17-29 or John 14-17, are more moderately relevant: the context in each shows that they are written or spoken to a particular audience (Jews and the twelve Apostles respectively), yet we can still gain valuable insights from the message to such persons so that we may follow God properly. Other passages, like Paul's concluding messages to specific people (cf. Romans 16:1-15, Philippians 4:2-3), have a low relevance level; we can certainly learn from them, but there is not much to apply directly to our lives.

Once we have established how relevant a given passage is to our lives, we can then begin to establish Biblical authority. Many times, passages that are in the low to moderate relevancy range can help illuminate the authority present within more highly relevant passages. Regardless, we can establish Biblical authority in three main ways: command, apostolically approved example, and necessary inference.