"Biblical Sparring"

In a previous post, we saw how Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 in order to tempt Jesus to “jump off a tall building” since God would command his angels to save him. Then, we saw how Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 to counter Satan by saying that “man is not to put God to the test.” Now this “biblical sparring” between Jesus and Satan is fascinating because it tells us something very important about how to (or at least how not to) interpret this passage from Psalm 91. Specifically, Christ’s response implies that Psalm 91:11-12 should not be viewed as a “blanket promise” that Christians should apply at whim to any circumstance without qualification. And Satan’s attempt to use God’s promises of faithfulness and protection to tempt Christ to test God was obviously not an appropriate application of this Psalm.

So what hermeneutical (i.e. interpretive) principle can we gather from this understanding? Since Jesus used Deuteronomy to correct a wrong application of the Psalm, the assumption is that the Bible needs to be interpreted “as a whole.” Proper interpretation of a single verse needs to incorporate the greater context of the entire Bible. That’s a daunting task (but an important one if we want to avoid errors and heresies).

For example, let’s consider prayer...

In Matthew 21:22, Jesus gives this amazing promise: “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive...” Now, are we to believe that this promise is a “blanket promise” without any qualifications? Would Jesus, for example, grant the request of a drug dealer to sell more drugs on the street? Would Jesus grant the request for protection of a thief as he was stealing a car? Obviously not! Christ’s promise is unquestionably qualified! And to discover these qualifications, we need to look at the “greater biblical context.” From other books of the Bible, we recognize that prayers need to be made in faith (Hebrews 11:6, James 1:6-8, and Matthew 17:20), with a life lived in righteousness (1 John 3:22, Psalms 66:18, and 1 Peter 3:12), with motives that are not selfish or self-seeking (James 4:3), with earnestness and perseverance (Luke 18:1-18), and be within the will of God (1 John 5:14-15). I have heard of some Christians blaming other Christians for unanswered prayers simply because of lack of faith. Although that may be the case, the reality can also be that unanswered prayers may occur simply because they are not within the will of God. And attributing all unanswered prayers to lack of faith seems to me a rather simplistic (and possibly uncompassionate and ungracious) assessment.

Anyway, this study has been a good reminder for me to always consider the broader biblical context when narrowly focused on a particular Bible passage.