What I'm Studying: Searching for the Pattern
Searching for the Pattern: My Journey in Interpreting the Bible by John Mark Hicks
When I learn how to study the Bible I was taught a method called “CENI” which stands for, Command, Example, Necessary Inference.
First, we looked for explicit commands. Every command in Acts or the Epistles was a timeless requirement by all Christians.
Second, we looked for approved (binding) examples. If the early church did it, we did it. Or so goes the reasoning. For example, Acts 20:7 said they came together on the first day of the week to break bread. So, every first day of the week we should break bread (communion.)
Third, we discerned necessary inference. We can reason (and the key word in this sentence is reason) from the text that we should do something, we should do it (or not do it), whatever the case may be. Using Acts 20:7 as an example, since the first century Christians broke bread on the first day of the week, we can infer that we should do it too.
The other things they taught me was that “we speak when the Bible speaks and is silent where the Bible is silent.” This is more than just silence, this is where there is an absent of authorization, we do not do it.
In the churches of Christ this method has led to no small amount of debate and division. While this way of reading Scripture seems straightforward, it is very complicated.
The people that taught me Scripture thought they were simply looking at the text and moving towards practice. What they didn’t realize is that they were moving from text, to hermeneutics (a way of interpreting Scripture) to practice. They thought they were in the “God said that settles it” camp, but they didn’t realize they were coming to the text with a context and a bias…like we ALL do.
To quote John Mark Hicks, he says…
“The method itself does not produce bad hearts, and I am certain good hearts have and continue to use it.”
This is not an indictment on those who have or continue to use this method. I have all the belief in the world that I will see them again in glory.
But to quote Hicks again…
“Rather than looking for patterns of church practice as part of a blueprint embedded in and diffused throughout Acts and the Epistles (which is not explicitly there), we seek the heart of God, desire to imitate God, share life with God, and embody the life of God in our practices.”
He goes on to say…
“It is possible, though not always the case, that we can become so focused on conformity to a blueprint that we miss the heart of God.”
He says that if we are not careful that we can turn into the older brother from Luke 15 who knew the commands of the father, but did not know the father’s heart.
To end again with the words of Hicks…
“One can know the commands of God and even obey them precisely but still fail to know and practice the heart of God. Sometimes, it seems, a malformed heart—a heart without compassion and mercy—hides behind full and precise obedience.”
Our understanding as a follower of Jesus shouldn’t be to try and reconstruct a blueprint pattern that is not explicitly there, but imitate the heart of God.
What about you? Have you ever asked the question, “What lens of interpretation do I use as I read and study Scripture? How do I come to conclusion of what to do and what not to do?”
Keep Studying!
Paul