MacArthur on Pulpit Crimes

The importance of careful, Biblical interpretation can hardly be overstated. We spend three or four years at the master seminary trying to teach men how to do this because it is the heart and soul of effective ministry. In fact, I would go so far as to say misinterpreting the Bible is ultimately no better than disbelieving it. So what do you mean by that?

Well, what good does it do to believe that the Bible is God's final and complete word if you misinterpret it? Either way you miss the truth, right? It is equally serious along with disbelieving the Bible to misinterpret it. Interpreting Scripture to make it say what it was never intended to say is a sure road to division, to error, to heresy and to apostasy. In spite of all of the dangers of misinterpreting the Scripture, today we have these casual people who approach the Scripture whimsically without any understanding of the science of interpretation and make it say whatever they would like it to say. Perhaps you've been in one those Bible studies where you go around the room and everybody tells you what they think the verse means? Or worse than that, "Well, to me this verse means," so-and-so. In the end, what you get is a pooling of ignorance, unless somebody knows what it means apart from them. The truth is it doesn't matter what a verse means to me, it doesn't matter what it means to you, it doesn't matter what it means to anybody else, it doesn't matter if it means anything to anybody else. All that matters is what does it mean? What did God intend to say? Every verse has intrinsic meaning apart from any of us and the task of Bible study is to discern the true meaning of Scripture. That's why I can come to you week after week, month after month, year after year and explain to you the meaning of the Word of God, apart from any personal experience I'm having. That's irrelevant.

The task of the interpreter is to discern the meaning of Scripture. In 2 Timothy 2:15 it says, "Be diligent," or study, "present yourself approved to God as a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed because he's handling accurately the Word of Truth." If you don't handle it accurately, you oughta be ashamed of yourself. And if you're gonna handle it accurately, you have to be diligent, you have to work hard at it. Clearly handling Scripture involves both of those things, hard work and diligence. It must be interpreted accurately, and those who fail to do that have reason to be ashamed.