I see a lot of people using the Scriptures, God's Holy Word, to validate and justify their positions, ideology, actions etc. Yet how can so many read the same verse and get so many different meanings out of it?
Is the Word of God so vague? Is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, telling different people different things? Does God allow such vagueness and variety of thought?
Christ quoted the Old Testament, He had no trouble quoting the scriptures and expected the religious leaders to have the same interpretation as He when doing so, He used Scripture to rebuke satan, He used Scripture to point to Himself as the Messiah. He used Scripture and He is God, how much more important is it for us to wield the Word?
Joh_7:42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?
Luk_4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Joh_7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
When Christ was tempted of the devil He quoted Scripture to defeat him, but also noteworthy the devil used Scripture to tempt Him. As we know however, satan used the Scriptures out of context to get his point across. Why did satan come at Christ with Scripture? So that he could have some semblance of legitimacy, some sense of being right. It is a tactic that he (satan) will use to confuse and confound those who do not truly know the Word of God, or those who will take it and run with it without actually studying the Word and rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Satan knows the Scriptures, he knows what God has said better than you or I, he will pervert what God has said, whether in meaning, or making you doubt what the Spirit has told you, or just plain lying using half scriptures.
Just as he did in the garden with Eve when He talked with her:
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
God didn't tell them to not eat of every tree, satan made her question, confused her, God did not say don't touch it, Eve added that part, satan caused her to question what God said and she, whether in defense, or in trying to make a forceful point, or in an attempt to make God seem unjust, added words to what God said. Or perhaps satan had seen her eyeing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and just used her own desires and doubts against her.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Why did God give us these accounts? Why did He tell us these things? For our edification, information and consideration. That we may know how the enemy operates. That we may know that these things will happen. To prepare you for the attacks of the enemy, and let me be the first to tell you that satan is still doing this today, so are the agents of satan, and the false prophets.
Once again what God has given us and intended to be used as a good tool, has been perverted, corrupted by man and the devil.
God gave us the scripture to help
2Ti 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
All Scripture is given by God for your good. All Scripture is sound.
Yet even in Paul and Peter's day the scriptures were perverted. Just a short while after Christ died for all of mankind, the Gospel was added to, taken away from, and perverted by false teachers. The Apostles were constantly correcting people who fell in with false teachers. The ones who were doing exactly what the Pharisees and Scribes did by making it more odious for the people.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Yet man has added to that, or taken away from this, and confounded and confused many. They have cheapened the Scriptures to make it say what they want rather than what God says. They use it to justify their actions, ease their conscience, and just to make it so they can sleep better at night. They use the Scripture to turn away the people from the Scriptures!
Jud_1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Gal_2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
A very interesting point here is that these false teachers can use the Scriptures this way and believe they are right, for in their natural state they have no understanding of the Scriptures, they do not have the Spirit leading and guiding them. Therefore they can not understand what it says, nor can they proclaim it fully for they are confounded themselves in the very meanings that are apparent to those who have the Spirit, those who understand the Scriptures and rightly divide it.
How do we refute? How do we contend with this type of personage?
1Jn 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things
This is how we counteract false teaching and false theology, through the scriptures, the very Word of God, The Spirit of God.. By studying and then sharing with those that are not teaching correctly. If they do not listen to us then we must pray for them and allow God to deal with them.
There are even those who know the Spirit, who are used by the Spirit that might need a little polishing, a little help in furthering their understanding, as the Apostle Paul did, he knew the Scriptures but was a little lacking when Priscilla and Aquila took him in. It is important to note they did not confront him, call him out in public, but took him in and taught him.
Act_18:26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
Now, there will be those that say "God doesn't speak to you only", and of course we know this, but God will only deal with those that accept Christ and Him crucified, who have taken Him for their own. If you do not know Christ and have not a personal relationship with Him, you can not know the Scriptures fully and wholly for you do not know Christ nor understand the fullness in Him.
The Scriptures were given to the world that the world might know Him. Yet they refuse to know Him, accept Him as He is, instead they try to mold Him to their image, their sin filled way of thinking. God gave freely, some men use it to get rich off the gullibility of the people who do not want the truth but validation of the lives they lead and are content without God in their lives.
All Scripture is given by God, every word, every verse that we might know Him, and use His Word to reach a lost and dying world. Not for our own personal interpretation.
2Pe_1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
This is why you should always have the Scripture open when listening to someone proclaim it. God's Word will be the litmus test of Truth.
God gave the Bible to us that we might know Him, that we might share Him and that we might know the Truth. It is up to us to study the Scriptures and know what they "Rightly" say. To answer the question from the beginning, no God's Word is not vague. Man is the the one who makes it so. God deals in black and white, not gray.
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