February 1

Feb 1 - Today from Proverbs 1 we look at verse 2
"For attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight."

The object of which the Teacher speaks in this verse is, of course, the Proverbs. One of the first things we note about the Proverbs is that they are intended to provide wisdom, discipline and understanding.
Wisdom is loosely defined as understanding life the way God meant it to be.
Discipline is sound instruction - even stern chastisement for the purpose of correction.
Understanding is proper perspective. I would like to share a few thoughts regarding this term. Without proper perspective, one could not attain wisdom nor could one be properly disciplined. Understanding requires clear objective definition. This brings us to a great malady in the postmodern Western culture in which we live. It is the malady of relativism. It is so subtle, that we barely perceive it's destructive forces at work all around us - even in Christ's Church. How can we truly understand how we are to relate to God and to one another when we cannot agree as to how scripture is to be interpreted? The church rarely studies the Bible from the objective intent of the authors as God inspired them to write. They have adopted the subjective, self-important, postmodern, ‘feel goodism’ method of filtering God's Word through their own life-experiences. Typically, the small group Bible Study sits around and reads a passage and then asks the question, "What does that passage mean to you?" Everyone then shares a subjective interpretation through their own understanding and life-experience. This is not Bible study, this is postmodern relativism. The group now has about as many different interpretations as there are members of the group. But where is the clear definition? Where is the proper perspective? "It doesn't matter. What matters is how the passage speaks to you." (sic). There is no sound instruction or even stern chastisement in a passage when the subject is allowed to do their own interpretation. The passage must be interpreted from the context in which it was written by the author, and must be in the perspective of the totality of God's Word. Few believers have the ability to interpret the Bible in such a fashion today. Why? Because few churches are offering sound Biblical teaching courses. We have adopted a method by which the enemy needs not openly take our Bibles from us and destroy them, we do the destruction ourselves through improper interpretation. We no longer hear God's voice speaking through the author's of the Bible. We hear our own voices speaking through our own interpretations of the Bible.
May God be merciful to His Church and raise up a new generation of Teachers who properly understand the importance of wisdom, discipline and understanding, and who "correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
"No prophesy of scripture came by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophesy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1: 20, 21).