It Says What It Says

John 21:23 KJV

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

The propensity of men to read into the Word of God what is not there is no new thing. The apostle John corrected that very error concerning this conversation between himself and the Lord. Others interpreted Christ's words to have a meaning that was not there.

The Bible says what it says. It should always be taken literally. There are, of course, eternal lessons in the Bible; there are also types, similes and metaphors. But these should be seen as the exception rather than the rule. God said what He said. That was the message John wanted to make clear.

Two common errors in Bible study, preaching and teaching are:

First, to spiritualize everything.

Origen was perhaps the first to practice this error, effectively dispensing with any literal application of the Bible and viewing it all as having only a spiritual meaning. Modern Baptists would decry Origen but often practice the same error by claiming that the literal interpretation is the correct one but never focusing on it but only on their spiritual applications.

Second is the error of principle.

This appears to me to be what the early Christians did with John. They took Christ's message to him and extrapolated from it more than was there. Modern Bible students are guilty of much the same mistake when we try to find in a passage a principle or lesson that is not really there. We know that the Bible contains all things that pertain to life and godliness so we try to construct from Bible materials those things we believe we need.

We would be better off to let the Bible say what it says and trust God that, in that, is all that pertains to life and godliness.

Men have messed things up enough. We need to let go of our handling of the Word and let God tell us what He has told us.

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