Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - 4 Keys for Studying the Bible | New Testament | 1 Corinthians 14

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

How do you faithfully handle reading challenging passages of the Bible? In today's episode, Tanya explores 1 Corinthians 14 and shares four key ways to unpack challenging pieces of scripture. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Corinthians 14

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. There's a little sign in the intersection where we wait at the light to turn left into our grocery store. It's in the middle of a little landscaping, pretty thing. And the sign says, on the seventh day, God said to rest. Remember the Sabbath. Be warned and repent. The end is near. This doesn't surprise me much.

I grew up in the Bible belt, and I'm pretty used to smatterings of billboards with Bible verses and warnings along the highway, sometimes encouragement too. But this sign really perplexes me because I couldn't even come up with a main theme. Rest, Sabbath, repentance, kingdom consummation. If I have kids in the car, I always look over at them and wonder what they're thinking. Does this sign help them love Jesus more? Does it spark curiosity about the Bible? Curiosity and questions are good, but if kids grew up in church hearing more what than who, they're eventually going to hear things later about the Bible that seem demeaning, contradictory,

maybe even evil, and they're going to feel challenged in their faith. And this isn't just true for kids, but for all of us. If our Bibles are cherry-picked to pull out verses without context and stories without context, we're going to miss the one it's all about. and we're going to wrestle with hard passages in a way that's not biblically healthy because we're not going to understand the character of God. In his letters to the first century Christians, Paul does out some challenging instruction sometimes. We have to do our work to understand the context into which he was speaking.

But Paul also models a truer way to read and understand God's word in light of the bigger story. So today, as we tackle a challenging section of one of Paul's letters, we're going to do what Paul did. and zoom out on the whole redemptive story of God, faithfully being with his people throughout the Bible. And then I'm going to give you four tools on how to read your Bible, so we don't get our theology from billboards or coffee cups or pillows you pick. So let's just jump in and let's go for it. 1 Corinthians 1434.

I'm just going to tackle it. Here it is. It says, As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Okay, I have three girls. I thought about today's chapter, and I prayed about today's chapter.

I looked up, I read scholars about today's chapter. I'm not using any of that to say that I'm going to do today's episode perfectly. but I also didn't want to glaze by it and have one of my girls or your kids or your friends or you bring this up later and say, wait, why didn't you talk about this chapter? And I don't trust a Bible that is demeaning to women. So I've been teaching the Bible for a while now. And once I was in a study where we were going through Paul's letters and I had to read this section aloud in front of a group of people.

I mean, talk about feeling my cheeks turned hot. Were there people in the room who had never heard this before? were there people who had been hurt by someone's interpretation of this? One woman told me after class that she had seen this on a truck's bumper sticker before. So we bring all kinds of things to our interpretations. And if we're not careful, we can get lost in those things too. Now, in the scripture, if we zoom out just a little, we'll see that this instruction is included in a passage

where Paul is talking about corporate worship and using the gift of prophecy to build up the church. Paul says the gift of prophecy is greater than the gift of tongues because it is used for the strength, comfort, and encouragement of the human heart. Therefore, this passage cannot be used in a way that tears down or demean someone, as that is not the intent for the original reader. Now, if we zoom out a little further,

we'll find this section is under a big theme of love. In 1313, Paul says faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. And in 14-1, he says to pursue love. If there was theme music to set the stage for this section of Paul's letter, it would convey love. Therefore, this passage cannot be used in a way that is unloving as that goes against Paul's instruction and his very point.

Okay, if we zoom out to the rest of the letter to the Corinthians, we'll remember that Paul has already encouraged women to pray and prophesy in chapter 11. 11. Take a bigger view, and you find women like Anna, the prophetess who proclaimed the good news about Jesus' birth at the temple, and Mary Magdalene, who Jesus met first after his resurrection and instructed to share the good news. The Old Testament has Miriam, the first prophetess, and Deborah, the unwaveringly courageous judge. To use this passage to silence women would not be in accordance with the rest of the Bible. How then do we come to this passage, and how? How then do we come to this passage, and how do we faithfully handle challenging passages in the Bible? Well, first, we remember that the Bible is a

library, not a book. I heard that from an author named Dan Kimball who might very well have heard it from someone else, but I like the way he explained it anyway. In a library, you find different kinds of literature, narratives, wisdom literature, poetry, letters. You would read each differently according to the purpose and the way it was written. Second tool. We remember the Bible was written for us, not to us. This means we need to understand the context of the original audience or understand that the best we're able.

And then we need to invite, or we also, or primarily need to invite the Holy Spirit to guide our current understanding. Hebrews 412 tells us the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul. and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Even though it was not written to us, God's word is the power of God to move our hearts toward deep repentance and faith. Okay.

Number three, third tool. Look at the whole story of the Bible, not just a verse. I already modeled this for you, but in God's big story, you can see him revealing himself to his people, and you can learn about his character. Sometimes when I get confused about a passage, I say, well, what do I already know about God that is true? How can I apply that and his unwavering character to my interpretation? You can also learn from the ways people approach their curiosity about God in the Bible. For example, if you look back at Exodus, you can see Pharaoh,

King of the Egyptians during the plagues, saying in Exodus 6, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord. and moreover, I will not let Israel go. Well, he's right. And the approach didn't go well for Pharaoh, as God sent the plagues, saved the Israelites, part of the sea, and drowned his Egyptian army. But you'll see in the same book of Exodus, Moses, asking God sincerely, saying,

I want to know you, show yourself, show me your ways. And in chapter 34 of Exodus, it says, The Lord passed in front of Moses calling out, Yahweh, the Lord, the God of compassion and mercy. I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. Isn't this so cool how God answered Moses' sincere plea to know him more?

God gave Moses a big picture of his character and his redemptive plan. And that brings us to the fourth tool. Remember that all the Bible points to Jesus. The prophets in the Old Testament prophesied about Jesus. The psalmist wrote poetry about Jesus. The leaders like Moses pointed to our perfect leader, Jesus. The judgment we deserve, well, that would be taken by Jesus. The New Testament church was being built to proclaim the truth and love of Jesus.

Our instinct is to read the Bible and immediately, jump to personal application. But that isn't a great Bible study method because we tend to isolate meaning and make it about us and our experiences. The Bible certainly speaks into our experiences, but it shapes them, not the other way around. In 1st Corinthians 14, Paul is focused on growing up and building up. As we participate in the body of believers, we grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are built up in the body, his church. Our churches and denominations may have different interpretations of ways to apply this verse, but the hope is that we are following Jesus example to build up all people when we do so. How is your study of the Bible?

Growing you up in your knowledge of God's faithfulness, God's love, God's redemptive purpose for your life. How are you being built up to serve your body, your local church, to share your gifts with others for their building up? I don't think a verse on a landscape sign is going to have as much impact as you might have as you faithfully study your Bible and share the good news about Jesus and what he has done for you with others in your words and through your actions. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.