Lost in our translation

My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge…Hosea 4:6

But they were filled with lack of understanding and senseless rage and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Luke 6:11

The point of emphasis; Lack of understanding results in foolishness which leads to a rejection and even hatred of God (Who Is the Source of Life), resulting in one’s own spiritual destruction.

Many of us presume to know what the bible says because we have heard a pastor or Christian (real or supposed), speak about the bible, or perhaps we ourselves have read the entire bible and inso doing concluded that we know all we need to know about God. (What an arrogant, ignorant and dangerous thing to believe). Such was the way of thinking of the religious leaders referred to above in Luke 6:11.

So if even these who had the scriptures memorized, yet missed His messages completely and so were filled with lack of understanding, wouldn’t you say that it is certainly plausible that we too might have actually misinterpreted and missed some things?

When we read the bible, we tend to assume many things, including our understanding of what we are reading.

So how does this lack of understanding come about?

In more than a few ways; Here are some:

If you are one of those who is under the impression that the bible is up for interpretation, first, please reconsider if there is actually any (legitimate) logic in such an idea, second, please actually study His Word to see if this idea aligns with His messages, and in the meantime consider this:

If God felt it so important and necessary for mankind to understand Him and that He had His messages transcribed, does it make any sense for Him to do so in order for us to then come along and come up with our own version of what He has said, declared, designed etc?

Then anyone who does this is just writing their own version bible according to themselves, aka their ‘own truth’ and inso doing, is discarding His Word. This is idolatry. Idolatry is rejecting Him. This is again what drove the people to want to do away with Jesus.

Again, ignorance and/or arrogance leads to misinterpretation which equals a lack of understanding aka ignorance, leads to idolatry that is rejection of if not disdain for Him, resulting in our separation from Him that is the Source of Life, and results in our spiritual destruction.

Unless we know any better, we will read and interpret based on our perspective and understanding of the words.

When we read this way, we are going to misinterpret meanings and thus misinterpret His messages, thinking the words are saying something different than they are, and missing the fullness of what He is actually saying, if we are even close at all.

Once we conclude we understand, we proceed holding God and life to unfounded and therefore unjust expectations (unfounded because they are rooted in our own reasoning and not His actual truth). Sooner or later see that things do not come to pass aligning with our expectations founded on our understandings which we credit to HIm. We then become disappointed and even angry with God and will draw more incorrect conclusions that develop into emotionally rooted lies about Him and His Word; Lies such as, ‘God does not love me’ (this was what I struggled with for a long time), or that ‘God is not loving,’ or even making bold suicidal move to declare ‘God does not exist’. From all this we then arrogantly seal our incorrect conclusions telling ourselves, ‘we tried God and He didn’t show up,’ and so we justify our rejection His Word, move away from Him and choose to go our own way without giving Him a second thought, or else creating our own imaginary version of God based on the ways we think He should be according to our emotionally pieced together reason and logic mixed with an eclectic collection of man’s self-proclaimed ‘spiritual’ wisdom.

Or perhaps we may immediately recognize the incongruence between our interpretation as it compares with our present understanding of life and God, and use our misinterpretation to support another incorrect conclusion aka lie, such as ‘the bible is a farce,’ or ‘this is not Someone or something I agree with and so therefore I want nothing to do with Him.’

Again what we are doing is believing and trusting in ourselves and using our rationale to justify our dismissal and rejection of God and any reason to further study His Word.

No matter what excuse used, such a person has rejected the Word of God that is Jesus, and separated themselves from Him, Who Is the Truth, The Source and Giver of Life, and once we leave this earth, this decision to remain separate is eternal. (This is according to the bible, including the words/messages of Jesus).

So let’s prevent this destructive ignorance.

One way we can do this is to be aware of how we incorrectly read and interpret His messages.

Here is an example of such a verse:

..he who believes in Him (Jesus), will never be disappointed.

(1 Peter 2:6 which is a referencing from Isaiah 28:16)

We easily could interpret this message to mean;

‘the person who acknowledges Jesus to be God, will never be disappointed in life..therefore those who are Christian will have a wonderful and happy life; easy, comfortable, prosperous, and God will grant to them whatever they wish and help them to succeed in their ways.’

If one continues to study they will find such an interpretation to be completely inconsistent and contradictory with other teachings of Christ, and therefore not an accurate or true interpretation.

What is true cannot legitimately be contradicted. So if the bible is true, then it cannot contradict itself, and therefore those verses which we think are contradictory, must have different meanings that those we have supposed.

The first mistake was to assume to know the meaning of the word ‘believe’.

When the bible uses the word ‘believe’ in reference to Jesus/God, it actually is encompassing a variety of consistent life altering decisions. What is being said is to make the necessary changes that allow one to conform to and align one’s self with Him/God and His Word/Truth/Message; This requires us to to turn away from and reject our previous way of thinking, reasoning and living, and adopt and conform to and trust His words, His ways, seeking Him all our ways for all our days.

This is a drastic difference from simple, surface level and empty-hearted acknowledgement.

Secondly; ‘we will never be disappointed’ does not mean we will never be disappointed in life.

It means when we live out our lives believing in Him; that is trusting, seeking Him and conforming to Him, we will never be disappointed for having done so.

Anyone (myself included), who has actually done this can attest that each and every time they have chosen to trust Him they have not been disappointed. But it does not mean that this decision was easy, nor that our faith or our decision to trust wasn’t challenged, it doesn’t mean that we did not encounter hardship or even opposition along the way. It means that in the end it was fulfilled and we are thankful for having the results and even thankful for having gone through all that we faced and endured along the way for having done so.

As we can see this has a significantly different and deeper meaning than the one we initially came up with. As we dig we will find that not only is it in alignment with the rest of His Word, but it will help to correctly interpret other messages.

The concluding solution:

First; At least be open to the idea that the Word of God, according to God, is true. This will help you to be more open to read and study to understand what God is actually saying, and not be so quick to trust your interpretation.

Then when we come across a verse or passage we question, rather than assume we have understood it correctly, we can be open enough to ask Him what He wants us to know right now regarding this. Then to seek, we can examine the surrounding verses, look up the words, if you have the technology, check the concordance to analyze it to gain better understanding of what it is actually saying.

DO NOT ASSUME to know. There is a difference between thinking or believing you know, and knowing because He has informed you. Understanding comes from the Lord, so when He gives revelatory understanding, know with certainty that this is a priceless gift. Thank Him for it and He will even give you more!

Be patient, but be persistent.

Realize that this is going to take time, and that’s ok, it’s supposed to. What is taking place is you are getting to know the Lord. Just as it takes significant quality time to truly get to know another human being, it will take quality time to get to know the One Who designed and created everything.

Some things to be aware of:

English vocabulary, especially as used today, is much more simplified and two-dimensional compared to the richness and fullness of the original Hebrew and Greek languages from which they are translated.

Another thing to remember is that many words within the English language have become greatly diluted if not mutated, from their true and complete meanings.

Therefore it is especially important to take into consideration when we read the Word of God aka the bible, we must also analyze and study it.

Again, we don’t interpret the bible based on what we want it to say, or what we think it is saying, but only by what God is saying. We will not always know this right away, nor will we every know and understand each and every message contained within. Until we know this which comes from His Holy Spirit sharing, we must make sure we are always open to removing what we thought we knew, by not drawing any complete conclusions.

His Word is layered or dimensional, but again, it cannot, does not and will not contradict itself. It does not change or alter but only completes and fulfills itself. Therefore, when we come across verses which strike us as strange or untrue, or contradictory etc, before we assume and conclude that we are right in what we think it’s saying, it is important to remember that if the bible is the Word of God and the Word of God is True, then what has actually happened is a lack of understanding on our part, which has resulted in our misinterpretation and from our misinterpretation have come perceived errors.

His Word is not up for our or anyone’s interpretation. We personally must study His Word and seek His meaning and messages, not formulate our own from it, nor take someone else's word for it. Use His Word to check the validity of what someone is saying or claiming, including anything written here.

Again, knowing and understanding is a gift that comes from Him, and most of the time we will not be given this right away. His Word is the most valuable thing we can be given as it leads us to Him/Life, because of it’s great value it is not given lightly, but is a precious gift and even responsibility to be entrusted with. So when we are given a little, how and what we do with what we have will reveal if we are to be given more. But seek Him in it, and continue to seek after Him and if we do so His Word states we will find.

Let’s continue to dig to understand so that we can better know Him and His goodness, strengthen our faith and better protect ourselves from falling into this trap of separation, increase our understanding appreciation of Him, His deep love for us and better and truly fall in love with Him.

‘I am the Way The Truth and The Life, no one comes to The Father except through Me.’

- Jesus (John 14:6)