As a new Christian, back in the early 1980’s, I loved reading the Bible and learning new Scriptural truths. One thing that I learned to appreciate early on in my walk with the Lord was how important it was to understand the importance of biblical doctrine and the need to support my biblical positions on an issue through a proper interpretation of Scripture.
I also knew that I needed to study the Bible since it is the ultimate source of all truth. Too many times, as a young Christian I would read books by various Christian authors that supported different views on doctrine that I had, as a baby Christian, and wondered whether my interpretation was all wrong. As I grew in the Lord, and studied my Bible constantly, I began to become more comfortable in my views on various Christian issues since I was able to defend them, not based on what someone else said but whether the interpretation lined up with Scripture.
In addition, I realized that there was just so much to know about the Bible that in my early years in Christ, I was just slowly forming my ability to defend my biblical positions. Fortunately, I was honest enough to tell people when they asked me a Bible question on certain doctrine, that I didn’t know for sure, rather than try to fake an answer. For you see defending truth is all important and telling people I am not certain is far better than trying to impress people when I don’t know the answer.
Even today, there are issues I am not certain what Scripture teaches, and I am proud to share that different Christians hold different interpretation. So, what I do is share my position and the interpretations that other believers have – always telling those who ask me doctrinal questions to examine the Scriptures for themselves and ask the Holy Spirit to help them discover what the Bible actually says. Whether I am right or wrong is not important but what is important is what God’s Word says. For remember we are fallible but God’s Word is infallible.
I love to be shown that my interpretation of a biblical passage is wrong, since when this happens I can glean what the real truth of the Scriptures are. My pride sometimes gets in the way but knowing the truth is always more important than my ego.
I really appreciate what Walter J. Chantry shared on this point. The compliment he shared may at first sting a little but in my opinion it is indeed a wonderful one: “Some preachers never appreciate the compliment given them when a saint disagrees with the pastor’s exposition of a text. At least the Christian under his care is devoted more to Scripture than to the man in the pulpit. Under his ministry the child of God has reached a maturity to think through issues for himself and has imbibed a Berean spirit (Acts 17:11).”1
And just what is a Berean spirit? (Act 17:11) gives us the answer: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
My friends, your pastor may have the best intentions but if the Holy Spirit puts a check in your spirit, at something he is saying, I urge you to not look at your pastor’s credentials but examine the Scriptures to see if what he is sharing from the pulpit lines up with the Bible. And if you can show your pastor that he just might be misinterpreting the Scriptures on a certain point then we all gain a great victory for the truth!