How to Look into the Bible Part 2

6. Logical reasoning
You must not suspend your sense of reasoning when interpreting scriptural
passage. We must ask, "does this interpretation make sense?" Take for
instance, reading about Elijah in the Bible, one must not then go ahead to
claim that it is the same Elijah that the book of Malachi spoke about. Whereas
the New Testament books had explained that Elijah had come and had been
treated the way he would be treated. We must be true to ourselves and to our
reasoning, because scriptures do not have personal interpretations. The Spirit
of Truth in us can and will make use of our mental faculty to bring us to
understand the truth of the scriptures.
 

7. Singleness of scriptural passages.
Books of the Bible do not contradict each other, rather all Bible passages agree in
the bigger picture. Where it seems a passage looks as if it contradicts another
passage, it may be that such passage is complex to us and we should work more
on the clearer one till the complex one
becomes more obvious to us.
8. Compare scriptures with scriptures
Most times you can compare certain
scriptural passages with other scriptural
passages to get a clearer and more
beautiful light from them. For instance,
you can compare the three eye witness
account of the gospel, that is, Mathew,
Mark and Luke over a particular event.
The death and resurrection of our Lord
Jesus can be cross examined from those
passages. We can also compare the
book of Colossians with Ephesians and
many other scriptures.
 9. Don’t build doctrines on a single verse
No single verse of the Bible should be
used to build a doctrine, rather there
must be two or three witnesses to
support such doctrines.
10. When some verses of the scripture
are not really applicable today ask
yourself what lesson can be learnt?
Apostle Paul in his writings would always
emphasize that there is neither Jews nor
gentiles in Christ. One truth we can bring
out of this is to say tribalism does not
exist in Christ. Also many people have
come across the passage, “2 Corinthians
13:12 - Greet one another with an holy
kiss”, and they have wondered whether
the church should be a place for such.
However, we can learn one truth from
this passage and it is that the believers
are to sincerely love one another with the
love of Christ.

How to look into the Bible Part 3