How much do we love God's word? Enough so that we do not impose the twenty first context to interpret what the ancient authors addressed to an ancient audience?
From Page 26 of: The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching
John Stott, "The first obligation [in expounding the text] is faithfulfulness to the biblical text. You and I have to accept the discipline of thinking ourselves back into the situation of the biblical authors-their history, geography, culture, and language. If we neglect this task or if we do it in a halfhearted or slovenly way, it is inexcusable. IT EXPRESSES CONTEMPT FOR THE WAY IN WHICH GOD CHOSE TO SPEAK TO THE WORLD [my emphasis]. Remember, it is the God-inspired text we are handling. We say we believe this, but our use of Scripture is not always compatible with what we say is our view of Scripture. With that painstaking, meticulous, conscientious care we should study for ourselves and open up to others the very words of the living God! So the worst blunder that we can commit is to read back our twenty-first century thoughts into the minds of the biblical authors, to manipulate what they said in order to conform to what we would like them to have said and then to claim their patronage for our options."
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