Principle 28

HERMENEUTICS

PRINCIPLE 28

Watch Out for Preoccupations and Pet Peeves

Christians are not immune to forcing their passions or even obsessions into Scripture.

1 Corinthians 6:19

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?”

Do you know a Christian who’s really into physical fitness? Maybe this person talks about exercise all the time, and tells you that being out of shape is a sin; God wants us to be physically fit. He or she is preoccupied with physical fitness.

Could this person’s obsession with exercise affect his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 6:19? Yes! person would immediately associate these verses with physical fitness, saying that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so we must keep it in good physical shape.

But this is bad hermeneutics. 1 Corinthians 6:19 is not discussing exercise. What is the context? Here the apostle Paul is teaching Christians to abstain from sexual impurity. God is more pleased with an overweight Christian who is sexually pure than a physically fit Christian who’s involved in sexual sin!

1 Timothy 4:8

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

Reading 1 Timothy 4:8, think how someone could use this verse to support their preoccupation with exercise. But God is more interested in your spiritual fitness than your physical fitness, and that’s the intended meaning of this verse. 

Matthew 27:46

“At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Perhaps one of the most extreme examples of this principle comes from an organization that teaches its own child-rearing principles. One tenet of this group is that a mother should refuse to attend to the cries of her baby if the baby’s needs have been met. Their scriptural support for this principle is our Lord’s cry on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?” They say that, since the Father did not answer His Son’s cry, a parent should follow His example!

This interpretation is not just bad hermeneutics—it’s horrible hermeneutics!  The fact that God the Father had to forsake the Son while He was bearing the judgment for our sins on the cross has nothing whatsoever to do with raising children.

Many other examples could be given for this principle. Christians whose “pet peeve” is their strong opposition to drinking any form of alcohol might use this pet peeve to interpret all references to alcohol in Scripture as “forbidden fruit.”

Christians who put a high emphasis on the doctrine of eternal rewards might see this truth “pop up” in all kinds of Scriptures.

It’s easy to let your favorite subject affect your interpretation of Scripture. Watch out for “hobby horses” and “pet peeves.”