Hearing the Word

Yesterday at the jail, Bill (not his real name) and I continued our conversation about the Scriptures. I said, you have to just interpret the Scripture for yourself - you can’t try to apply it to what anyone else should do at any given moment. And you can listen to what other people say it means to them, but you have to go by what it means to you. And you have to be really honest with yourself about it. You can’t do it for show - to seem better to others or even to yourself.

This all was woven in to specific discussion of passages of Scripture, such as Paul’s injunctions in I Corinthians regarding whether to marry or not and how to make judgement in the case of disputes between people (these were what he was bringing up). I also brought in parts like Jesus’ instruction not to judge, and his definition of Christians as people who love each other - people who see others while standing in the place of love towards them.

Eventually he was ready to have me read him two sections of the Bible Lesson, which I did, with him interjecting, with enthusiasm, things that he knew about some of the passages. And we talked more about what things meant - but he tended to think the stuff in Science and Health just made sense as it stood. At a certain point he said, I really like to study the Scripture myself, but sometimes it really helps to hear someone else’s perspective on it. And he said, “you’re good!” I didn’t take this personally, as I hadn’t really cherished the things I was saying as my own view, nor was looking for a way to convince him of anything, but was just sharing the inspiration of the Word as it came to me.

The whole experience is teaching me how it is that the Word speaks to each of us - and that we all need to be encouraged to look for ourselves and see what it means to us right now. It may mean something different at a different time. It may mean something completely different to someone else. It is never God’s plan to put me in the position of someone enlightened to pass the knowledge of God through my filter of wisdom so some lesser person is able to receive from me what they couldn’t directly receive from God. God’s plan for me is much simpler than that, much more flexible, much more beautiful. God allows me to see His wonderful creation - all His amazing children - and to be, as my role, one of them. That is enough.