Hermeneutics

Proper hermeneutics is difficult for any individual who reads the Word of God, much less has the responsibility of preaching/teaching the Word of God.  As difficult of a task as it may be, the challenge is definitely posed throughout Scripture to handle God’s Word with diligence and integrity.  Webster’s dictionary defines integrity as “wholeness; entireness; honesty and uprightness.”[1]  Hermeneutics and the study there of, challenges individuals to handle passages of Scripture with wholeness, honesty, and the diligence to find the author’s original intent in its entirely. 

            Unfortunately there are many individuals that are not handling God’s Word like that.  Week after week there are preachers filling pulpits all over the nation and they use God’s Word for self-glorification, false motives, and personal propaganda.  In an anonymous source, it has been estimated that each weekend fifty-five million people listen to one billion words in sermons all across America.  Failure to preach power-packed, exegetically correct sermons poses the prospect of rising up a pagan church culture.  Not only does this weaken the state of the church, it hinders the possibility of effective ministry.  Not to mention that James, chapter three, reminds us that such breaches in interpretation and the teaching there of is going to be judged by God very seriously.  “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1).[2]  It is imperative, if the church is going to be everything that God intended it to be, that the body handle His Word correctly. 

            Pragmatism in the church has birthed a philosophy of preaching/teaching that is content with presenting ‘good stuff’ at the expense of ‘God’s stuff.’[3]  Paul reminds Timothy that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  These verses more than validate that “the Word of God is indeed both the road map that leads people to salvation and the food that fuels their re-creation into Christ’s image.”[4]  Pragmatic preaching and giving people what their itching ears want to hear will certainly grow a congregation.  However, growing a church is a much different calling.  So, I must ask: will you continue to be a part of the problem or will you be a part of the solution?

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[1] William Morris, Charles Chadsey, Harold Wentworth, eds., The Grosset Webster Dictionary, (New York: Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1966), 318. 

[2] Unless otherwise indicated any Bible references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) (Anaheim, California: Foundation Publications Inc, 1998).

            [3]Jim Shaddix, The Passion Driven Sermon, (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman, 2003), 62.

            [4] Ibid., 72.