How to Read the Bible, Plus Jesus on Enemies

Welcome to another episode of everyday

disciples. I'm Pastor Matthew, and I'm so glad you're here

today. First up on today's episode, we talked with Pastor

Rob, about how to read the Bible. It can be a daunting

book, but it's also where we hear God's voice. We'll talk

about how to approach the Bible and make it a part of your daily

walk as a disciple. Then pastor Rob Adam, and I continue our

walk through the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus teaching on

loving your enemy, something that comes naturally to you

know, basically no one and giving to the needy. There's

lots of great stuff ahead. So let's dive in.

Welcome back to another segment of everyday disciples, I'm

sitting here with Pastor Rob today. Wanted to talk a little

bit about something that I don't remember ever being growing up

in the church. I don't remember ever being instructed on how to

read the Bible. We read the Bible a lot. You know, I grow

up. I grew up in Christian school. So it was religion class

was part of the day. But I don't ever remember being instructed,

like, here's how you read the Bible, how you like, get

something from it or get an application from it? I don't

know. Did you did. Were you ever taught? Like specifically

taught? No,

I don't know. Same thing? Nah, it was presumed I

think you knew how to do that. Sure. And I kind of been me

maybe felt like, oh, I should know this. Why am I not? Why

don't I know this? I must be the right Jr.

Did I miss that day when everybody else learned

how to do this? Or does it just come natural to everybody? And

so yeah, I think it's important to talk about like, we talk

about the importance of reading the Bible as Christians as being

in the Word. But I think a lot of times for I know, for me,

even today, a lot of times where I will open up the Bible, and

I'll read something. It's like, okay, now what, you know, what

do I What do I do with what I just read? How do I? How do I

dig into it? How do I understand, especially when we

read something, maybe in the Old Testament, where it's, it seems

really foreign to what we're talking about? Or? You know,

it's a story that doesn't quite make sense to me. So, you know,

maybe I know, you've talked about this sort of thing with

like, confirmation kids or Bible class type stuff. Maybe what's,

what's the place to start reading the Bible? What's the

first thing you do?

Well, I think we did a segment on how to listen to a

sermon. So it's pretty similar, maybe a similar track.

Obviously, we're not saying the, our sermons are God's Word in

the inspired sense, but an inspired Word, but to read the

Bible, you want to understand it? So the first thing you would

maybe want to do? I'd say read it out loud, it would probably

be good thing. So

even just by yourself, yeah, yeah, that's

probably helpful.

I mean, I can't say I always do that. What's it

saying? What does it mean? And what's a calling me to do now?

How do you get to that part? And but I do think you got to give

yourself Grace sometimes to that. There might be some

passages you just don't understand. Sure. And that's

okay. I mean, if there's

passages that we as pastors don't always under

sure that, you know, right, we got to we got to turn to a

commentary or somebody a whole lot smarter than me to figure

out okay, so what, what does this really mean? What's going

on? Behind the surface or beneath the surface here? I know

what one of the one of the things that I try to tell folks,

when when it comes to reading the Bible, is always kind of

look around what you're reading, or, you know, think about the

context. I know we, we did a segment a couple episodes ago on

on verses that get pulled out of context a lot of times. And so

one of the one of the fixes for that is always to look at the

context. And so I'll encourage folks sometimes to read, read in

chunks, you know, don't necessarily try to read a whole

book at one time, but you know, maybe read a section or a

chapter or something, something a little more than a verse, to

kind of give you a little bit more of what's going on. What's

the bigger picture?

I think of that as there's a difference between

reading the Bible and studying the Bible. So sure, there's a

little shade of difference in my mind, okay. And I would,

especially the newer Christian or somebody who's, even though

you could have grown up with it your whole life, you still can

miss kind of some of the points right and even with a Children's

Bible just gets A storyline first, and just do what you just

said, Read a chunk of it and get the idea and get the the main

things down. Because there are, you know, the New Testament

builds so much off the Old Testament. And we would say one

of the interpret rules of interpretation is the New

Testament interprets the Old Testament, it tells you what it

really meant. So getting that baseline is very good. And then

in terms of studying it, yes. context, what ask yourself what

did this mean to the people who first heard it? Sure, rather

than jumping right to, you know, our contemporary situation?

That's part of the studying part of it. I mentioned Lectio.

Divina that that that listening?

Yeah, maybe tell our listeners a little bit

more what what is the how would you describe what Lectio Divina?

Yeah,

it's a lacto means reading and Divina divine

reading. And it would be I suppose, bordering on the

mystical part of it without being too to spiritual but it's,

it's asking yourself, well, what is God? What's God saying to me

in this? So how do you do that? Yeah. You just ask yourself what

that is.

So you read a passage of scripture, and then

just sort of reflect on it for a few minutes?

And yes, in silent reflection, and just say, What

did I notice about this? And I know you and I were at a

pastor's meeting. And we were asked to do this. And it was a

good exercise. And but the leader said, don't think about

your next sermon. Don't think about your next Bible study.

Just what is God saying to you right now, through this. And

that feat may feel? What to spiritual or something, maybe

for some of us, that's actually a good thing.

Right? It might feel a little, for some people

who maybe grew up with a little more of like, a structured time,

the word cognitive, right? And if that whole, like Lectio

Divina approach feels a little, little too loose, or a little

too unstructured, like, I might come come away with something

vastly different than somebody else. So doesn't that mean that

one of us is wrong? Well, no, not necessarily,

right? Because I can do that. But can Yes.

But I, I appreciate like, you know, when

I come back to a text that I haven't read in a little while.

It's, I always I usually end up doing that on my computer,

because I like to, you know, jot down my thoughts or my notes and

stuff like that, and have them kind of in my Bible. And so when

I come back on something I haven't read in a long time, and

I look at like, what struck me the last time I read this, I

might not have thought of that this time, as I was reading. And

I noticed something much different this time, because I'm

not who I was, when I read that a year ago, or five years ago,

or whenever it was that I wrote that note down. You know,

there's always something more that we can glean from God's

Word.

And I've actually asked my, tried to train myself.

And this would get back into how to listen to a sermon too. And

reading the Bible, I mean, obviously, it's going to fire

off some questions. I don't know what that means. I don't get

that part, but data, and you can spend a lot of time doing that.

But what is one thing that you I don't mean, like in the sense

that you agree with but what is one thing that you can pull away

out of this next? So it might not be, you know, world peace

and changed, turn the world upside down? But what's one

thing out of this verse, this text that, yeah, I needed to

hear that, or I'm appreciative that, that that's in there that

brings encouragement to my spirit and my soul. And then

following along with that, what do you what is God telling you,

and then actually doing something, right? So making up a

practical application to that, and I know what not every verse

can do that for you. But that's what you're looking for. Right?

I don't one of the other things that I always

try to remember, for myself as well as to try to share with

others is when I when I come to a passage of Scripture, what I'm

taking away, sometimes it's simply being reminded of what I

already know. It's not that I it's not that I need something

new from this verse, or I need to come up come up with

something that no one else has ever thought of before. Like,

it's sometimes it's just enough to be reminded of the truth that

I already know. Then maybe I just need to live that a little

stronger. or hold on to that truth a little bit more. But

that's okay to not be looking for something novel and new

every time we come to a passage of scripture. Good. But I think

another one that, that I always try to instill in folks too, is

to look for Jesus. Oh, when you're reading in Scripture,

even in the Old Testament, Jesus not mentioned by name in the Old

Testament, but there's a lot of things that happen in the Old

Testament, that can point to Jesus or that can allude to

Jesus or reference him in some way. You know, even the classic

story is like Abraham and Isaac, and the lamb that is, you know,

fallen caught in the thicket, that is the replacement for the

sacrifice of Isaac. You know, Jesus is our spotless Lamb who

is our sacrifice, who stands in our place, and you know, we can,

when we see those sorts of things, and those stories we

can, we can find Jesus in there. So it's one of those things that

I always kind of try to help people remember when you're

reading scripture.

And that's exactly what Jesus said, These things

are written about me, and he's talking about the Old Testament

right? Now, it doesn't mean,

every single verse is going to have a

reference to Jesus and every single story might not, not in

a, you know, explicit way, do that. Sometimes there is just

stuff in there. That's what informational for the context of

whatever's going on. But you know, when when we see when we

can see Jesus in there when we can find him that that points us

ahead to him in the New Testament.

Yeah, very good.

Anything else you would add there?

Um, no, I think if we were to study, you know, want

to study more there. Certainly, there's books on principles of

Bible interpretation. I mean, you could go through a list of

things, but for the person who just wants to read the Bible, I

think, yeah, read it. Ask itself. What did it mean, then?

And I know we have various different things. But basically,

what are you what did it mean to them? See if you can discern

that? And then what is God telling me out of this? And what

can I do about that? Those would be good. I don't know.

guidelines to follow along, I'd say

Right, yeah. Yeah, great things, great ways

to guide our reading of God's Word. So thanks, Pastor Rob.

Oh, once again, I'm sitting here with Pastor Rob and Adam, ready

to dig into the sermon on the mount a little more as we do a

little, little more of the commentary list, Bible study,

not bringing our, our tools or our resources with us, but just

just talking about the word in the same way that you listening

at home might be opening up your Bible to do a Bible study. So

you can do that along with us this morning. We are we are

starting at verse 43, of Matthew chapter five. In the Sermon on

the Mountain, we're going to cover a couple of different

sections of the sermon on the mount this morning, talking

about loving our enemies and giving to the needy. So Adam,

you want to read that first section for us there to the end

of chapter five?

Yes, again, you have heard that it was said

you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to

you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So

that though, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in

heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the

good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you

love those who love you, what reward Do you have? Do not even

the tax collectors do the same? And if you agree only your

brothers what more are you doing than others? Do not even the

Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as

your heavenly Father is perfect.

Their bars pretty low on that 100

easy words of Jesus here and just be perfect,

right?

That'll solve everything. Yeah.

So this is this is a interesting passage to

consider. And I know I've preached on this one a handful

of times I think we get the the you shall love your neighbor and

hate your enemy that that just comes natural whether you've

heard somebody say that or not like Jesus said, we all just I

think intuitively understand that we like people who are like

us. And we we all have people that we don't like that we that

we count as our enemy. But man when it comes to loving your

enemies and not just loving your enemies, but Jesus goes on to

say to pray for those Those who persecute you. So that enemy I

guess in my mind, it can be kind of a passive role that somebody

has. There are those folks that just we just don't like them

does not necessarily like our, our sworn enemy that has a

vendetta or something against us, but just people that get on

our nerves or they just irritate us or whatever that we just

don't like, but that persecute you. Like that's an active like,

these are people who are coming after you. These are people who

are actively against you. And I'm supposed to pray for those

people.

Who could I think that you have heard it said,

wasn't that a reference to Mosaic law? But and what I'm

wondering is, I think we could find the divorce one, I think we

could find the old one. And you heard that it was set an eye for

an eye tooth for tooth. That's a famous Mosaic Law. Do you know,

was there I'm Old Testament reference, you shall love your

neighbor and hate your enemy.

I don't recall hating your enemy.

I mean, love your neighbors. Certainly, yes. I'd

have to consult a commentary,

right? Yeah, me too. I don't. I don't remember

if that was that a cultural thing that had kind of come up

is that it was a culture that was saying, hate your enemy. I

mean, our culture today certainly says that, right?

Yeah. And is very much okay with hating your enemy.

Like I did like your point there about this. Jesus is

amping it up, not just people who you know see life

differently than you and annoy you. This is this is people who

are coming after you right.

And I appreciate his comment in like

verse 46. That you know, if you love those who love you, what

good is that? Everybody does that. Even even the tax

collectors do that? They like the people who love them. If you

only greet your brothers, what more are you doing that others

everybody does that

the tax collector

they probably the people they're collecting

tax for they love them. But then he lands with that. You know, we

love to quote certain words of Jesus a lot. And there are those

words that get turned into like the the wall art that people put

on their walls. And so I don't see anybody putting Be perfect

as your heavenly Father is perfect on their refrigerators

or in their living rooms. You know, I'm in fancy artwork.

That's not words of Jesus that we like to quote very much. But

all of what he's been saying so far, like that's, that's what

he's been leaning toward.

And again, Christ centered he's he is the perfect

right now we were the old older translations would have said you

must be holy as your father and or does that how you would have

remembered it quoted? And so it might be kind of interesting to

drill down a little bit on this perfect word. What, what exactly

is that referring referring to? And if it's what I'm thinking

of, it's this word that means your complete the completeness

of God's action and you do you therefore must be complete in

Christ as your heavenly fun and as is holy or perfect. And

again, that won't come until we're out of this sin and

crusted world and sinful heart kind of situation. And again,

leading us to the need for a Savior, but also to grow in him

as well. Right. And certainly, you pray for that, pray for your

enemies, even those who persecute you. I mean, you can't

get away from the bat of Jesus, even though people who nailed

Him to the cross, right, praying for them,

which is one of the things I love to bring up

when I preach on this text is, we're the enemies. Were the

enemies that Jesus loved Jesus, he loved his enemy. And now we

get to really try hard to love our enemy. And that's going to

be difficult and it's not going to come naturally to us. It's

going to be effort on our part to love our enemy. Not just our

neighbor.

So how does pastor Matthew, deal with this? You got

somebody Who grinds your gears or even has worked actively

against you?

Pastor Matthew deals with this not super well,

you know, I mean, it's a it's a struggle. I don't have it

figured out if that's what you're asking. Yeah, this is

it's an ongoing thing of trying to figure out how do I love this

person now thankfully I in my life like I don't, I don't have

a lot of people that I can point to is like that person is a

major thorn in my side. We've all got some anti Matthew,

right, right. I don't have a there isn't a Lex Luthor to me

being Superman, you know, out there, not that I think I'm

Superman. But I just realized, as I was saying that I was like,

that's not what I meant. We don't have I don't have those

sorts of enemies that I think about, but maybe more often than

I than I like to admit there are those people that I get annoyed

with, or that I get upset with. And in those times, guy should

really have to, like, actively say to myself, I have to love

this person.

And prayerfully I mean, yeah, God help me do the

right thing here. Even well, even if my personal desire is

avoided, or, or don't go there,

and I don't always do it good in the moment,

a lot of times it's after the fact. Or, or beforehand, when

I'm like, if I know I have a, like a confrontation or

something coming up with somebody, like I have to remind

myself Jesus is crazy about this person. And I gotta look, I

gotta look at sometimes I got to look look really hard through my

own, like, lenses that I have towards, towards these people

around me to see like, what is it? Jesus loves them? And he's

crazy about them. What does he see that I don't see. And I

gotta, I gotta really look for that sometimes. And I gotta

remind myself too, that love isn't a feeling. I don't have to

feel a certain way towards these people like love isn't, is an

action, it's a verb. And it's also a choice to love someone,

it's not a feeling that comes first. And then I follow that in

love towards somebody. But I get to, I get to love them.

Regardless of how I feel about them. Shall we move on to the

next section here, giving to the needy, you want to read that

Adam through verse four?

Yes, beware of practicing your righteousness

before other people in order to be seen by them for then you

will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus,

when you give to the needy sound, no trumpet before you, as

the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,

that they may be praised by others, truly, I say to you,

they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy,

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

So that you're giving, maybe in secret, and your Father who sees

in secret will reward you

kind of one of those. Okay, I get the big

point. Pretty easy, but the littler, you know, the, what do

we actually do with this? Right gets gets a lot

harder. There's so Jesus is certainly talking

about some humility in here.

Right? So and he's not saying don't do acts of

righteousness, right?

Do them give to the needy, you don't need to

draw attention to yourself. Just just do it subtly. I don't know

how do you handle the right and left hand thing of you know,

don't let your right hand know what the left is doing? Or the

other way around? As he says it. How does that apply to us today?

Like what does that mean today? Does that mean the husband

doesn't let the wife know, when he's when he's given to the

needy or when he's doing something with money? Adam

shaking his head no.

No, I don't think so. either. I think that's, it's

again, coming from that. The right things the right thing,

because it's of God. And that's your motivation for doing it.

That should be your reward for doing it in all. Not to get the

other what the accolades that can go along with it to make a

gift that people say thank you for, you know, don't forget to

say, you know, give me give me the thanks for that.

I think it's interesting that in this short

little section, three times Jesus mentions rewards. You

know, at the beginning, if you if you make a big deal about

your giving, you're not going to get rewarded. You if you are

praised by other people, then well then you've got your

reward. But if you do it in secret, then God will work. for

you. And we don't hear Jesus talk a whole lot about rewards.

And even as Christians, and especially as Lutheran is like

that that sort of makes us uncomfortable, even talk about

like we shouldn't, there shouldn't be any sort of benefit

from the things that we do. I mean, it's, it's not what it's

about.

But he does promise, there's reward. There's

blessing, blessed are you if you do these things, Jesus does say

that. I know I, I quoted once there's a famous passage in a

book that pastors would have, and it said, Let it be clearly

stated that God does reward in the afterlife, and in the light,

and on this present life, those who do His will. And, you know,

you just take it out of context. And every buddy would say, well,

that's works righteousness. And yet, it's totally biblical to

say that it doesn't get God's love, but he does reward it, he

does. And the word the idea of the reward is payback. He does

pay it back in his way. Right? And so

this isn't, this isn't the, you know,

prosperity preacher, when you when you sow your $100 donation

the road, that's, that's not what this is talking about.

These are these are heavenly rewards. You know, these are

the, the jewels in our crown and heaven, I think, as Revelation

puts it, you know, this is kind of intangible,

and it's, it's my faith that just says, you know,

God's gonna make this work somehow. I don't know how he's

going to do it. I, but I'm trusting him to to bless that to

reward that however he sees fit in his economy. However, he

would like to do that. My I caught the Beware, beware of

practicing that. You can fall into that trap. Right?

Because what what is that trap? What does

that what? They only danger of Oh, sure.

And then I get resentful when I don't get it.

Right.

Yeah, the danger there is just becomes

about us. So So I want, I want some praise, I want some glory

out of doing these things, when really, we should do these good

things, because they're good things that need to be done. Not

because I get any, anything specific from them. This has

been a good good conversation on these two parts. We've got

another one for this season that we're going to be talking about

as we continue on here. But glad that you could join us today for

for doing a little time in the Word with no no the commentaries

other than what we bring from ourselves here.

Thanks for listening to everyday disciples, everyday disciples as

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