The Two Obstacles to Interpretation: #2 The Nature of the Reader
We bring our experience, understanding, culture, and every sermon and opinion we have heard to our reading of Scripture. Without interpretation, we read ourselves into Scripture and warp the message God has for us.
I was doing a teaching on evangelism when I was still a college student. I was using the text Philemon 1:6, “I pray that you might be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” I explained that the more we evangelized, shared our faith, the more we would learn about Jesus. After the teaching, my campus pastor pointed out that I had misused the passage and suggested that I take another look at it.
I went back to the passage again and again over the next week, but I couldn’t see where I had gone wrong. I went back to my pastor in frustration. He suggested I make sure I knew what all the words in the passage meant to the original audience.
I began the word study and, sure enough, there was the problem. Christians sometimes us the slang “sharing their faith” to describe evangelism, and I had read that meaning into this passage. But that is not what the passage said. The Greek word that was translated “sharing your faith” is konanea. Konanea means “fellowship.” The passage was talking about sharing our faith, fellowshipping, with other believers. Suddenly, the passage said something different altogether. Actually, the passage had always said what it said, but now study had moved me past my own limitation and into a right understanding of God’s message.