The Interpretation Card

Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. - John 8:43

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If you have been involved in any kind of biblical interaction or debate, you have no doubt encountered the following statement somewhere along the way: “Well, that’s just your interpretation.”

Some of you have no doubt deployed it yourself.

Here’s the issue.

There is a time and a place to play the Interpretation Card. But that time is not whenever someone makes a point from scripture with which you disagree. To claim a difference of interpretation as a way to avoid getting backed into a conversational corner or as a dodge against having to admit flaws in your own thinking or that you haven’t considered a particular perspective is to misunderstand the entire issue of interpretation or, worse, to try to escape without losing face.

Consider an analogy and then an example.

Imagine two people having a conversation. The first person tells the second what they would like to order on their pizza for dinner. The second then turns to a third individual and claims that the first just said that they didn’t actually want pizza, but Chinese takeout instead.

In this instance, the first person would be understandably upset. They stated clearly that they wanted pepperoni on their pizza, but the message that got conveyed wasn’t anything close to what they said. If our second person, our middle man, claims that their own interpretation of the first person’s words indicated that what they really wanted was Chinese takeout, then it is not the first person’s statement that requires scrutiny, but the motivation of the second person in feeling it appropriate to change it so much.

I recently had an exchange here on this page about the nature of God as He has revealed Himself to be in His Word. I got pushback regarding some of the characteristics the Bible emphatically states that God possesses. I was told that, among other things, the only way a person could ever possibly relate to a God like the one I used scriptural citations to describe was through fear, and that the love that Jesus Christ demonstrated during His time here on earth completely eradicates any notion that fear is ever a proper dynamic of how we relate to God.

When I pointed out that Jesus Christ Himself commanded us to, “fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” in Matthew 10:28, the response I received was that my “interpretation of scripture isn’t infallible.”

But interpretation isn’t even an issue here. Christ clearly said what He said. If we try to - quote/unquote - “interpret” it some other way, it is not because He was being obtuse or vague. It’s because we don’t like what He had to say.

Don’t misunderstand: there are things in the scriptures that are open to interpretation. But they are so either because God chose to deliberately give us issues to thoughtfully consider and make decisions about ourselves (creating gray areas that we all must navigate by faith) or because the nature of what is being said is affected by the entire counsel of scripture as a whole, and can only be properly understood within the context of all that the Bible says. Issues regarding eschatology or how exactly to obey positive commands (such as, “love your wife as Christ loved the Church,” for instance), fall into this interpretive category.

Clear, unambiguous statements are not open for interpretation. They say what they say and mean what they mean. It is incumbent on us to obey them and to refine our theological and biblical worldview to accommodate them, and not the other way around.

Always be wary of people that play the Interpretation Card as a way to dodge having to justify an unbiblical position. We do not have the authority to decide what the Word of God says or means. We have the responsibility to learn what it means (Matthew 11:29) and then submit to it (James 1:21; I Corinthians 14:36-37).

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“The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” - John 12:48