BIBLE-APPLICATION
There is
scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible
doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its
biblical sense, but something else and something less.
Leadership, v. 12, n. 1.
The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is
the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few
favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible
can make a whole Christian.
Discipline toward holiness begins then with
the Scriptures – with a disciplined plan for regular intake of the Scriptures
and a disciplined plan for applying them to our daily lives.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, © 1996, p. 97. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
I still
maintain that much of Scripture is plain and straightforward in its meaning. Our
problem continues to be more of a lack of action than comprehension. The words
of Scripture must be understood to be applied, but until we apply them, we
don’t really understand them.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 59, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved. For more
information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
The Bible is
not meant merely to inform, but to transform.
[We must
determine] what the passage means in its original context… [I am] wary of
trying to apply the text to Cleveland before I have discovered Paul’s purpose
in addressing the congregation in first-century Corinth.
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway,
1999, p. 30-31.
The Bible was
not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.
Leadership, v. 9, n. 2.
The doctrines
of Scripture are facts, which involve corresponding emotions and principles of
action, and must, from their very nature, if believed, be operative upon the
heart and the life. If the doctrines of Scripture exert no godly influence,
carry with them no practical weight, exert no moral power, they are not truly
believed.
Ask yourselves
the solemn question. In proportion as you store your minds with biblical texts
and biblical ideas – are you all the while seeking to have your heart filled
with biblical feelings, and your life with biblical actions?
Christian Progress, 1853.
Head
knowledge is not evil in and of itself.
Most of our Reformed and Puritan forefathers were highly educated. The
Reformers never tired of stressing the value of Christian education. But this
education must be empowered by the Holy Spirit and applied to the heart. Head knowledge is insufficient without the
Spirit’s application to the inward man.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 110.
Every
Christian should be both conservative and radical;
conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.
HIS, Christianity Today, Oct. 1975, v.
36, n. 14.
We must allow
the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our
complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.
The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations,
ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 119.
The Word of
life may be so distorted from the life of the Word till it becomes the food of
death.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 36.
I believe that the Bible is God’s Word. Therefore I must define
the ultimate goal of exegesis so as to embrace the heart as well as the head.
The Scriptures aim to affect our hearts and change the way we feel about God
and his will. The exegete, who believes that this aim is the aim of the living
God for our day, cannot be content with merely uncovering what the Scriptures
originally meant. He must aim, in his exegesis, to help achieve the ultimate
goal of Scripture: its contemporary significance for faith. It is the will of
God that his Word crush feelings of arrogance and self-reliance and that it
give hope to the poor in spirit.
Biblical Exegesis, p. 9, Used by Permission, www.DesiringGod.org.
Give yourself wholly to the text, and apply all you learn to
yourself.
Quoted in: Oscar Cullmann,
Salvation in History, Harper and Row, 1967, p. 292.
The Christian’s
life should put his minister’s sermon in print.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 195.
Exposition
alone is not preaching. A minister who only presents the grammatical and
historical meaning of God’s Word may be lecturing or discoursing, but he isn’t
preaching. The Word must also be applied. This application is an essential
characteristic of Reformed preaching. Without it, vitality is quenched.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 103.
Cultivate
prompt, exact, unquestioning, joyous obedience to every command that it is
evident from its context applies to you. Be on the lookout for new orders from
your King. Blessing lies in the direction of obedience to them. God’s commands
are but signboards that mark the road to present success and blessedness and to
eternal glory.
How to Succeed in the Christian Life,
Revell, 1975, p. 60.