Lorenzo Palon

Imagine a Christian who has just lost his job. He’s worried about the bills, uncertain about the future, and desperate for some assurance from God. He opens his Bible and reads Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you.” He closes the Bible comforted, believing God has promised him another job, financial stability, and a better future.

The verse has encouraged him, and that isn’t necessarily bad. But is that what Jeremiah was actually promising?

Jeremiah wasn’t writing to a recently unemployed Christian in the twenty-first century. He was speaking to Jewish exiles in Babylon. Their city had fallen. Their temple had been destroyed. False prophets were assuring them that the exile would end quickly, but Jeremiah told them to settle down, build houses, raise families, seek the welfare of Babylon, and prepare to remain there for many years.

God’s promise wasn’t that every individual plan would succeed. It was that He hadn’t abandoned His covenant people. Judgment wouldn’t be the end of their story.

That difference matters.

The Bible was written for us, but it wasn’t written directly to us. We are its intended beneficiaries, but we aren’t its original audience. When we forget that, we can turn Scripture into a collection of private promises, inspirational slogans, and answers to questions the biblical writers weren’t addressing.

Context doesn’t take the Bible away from us. It restores the Bible to us with its meaning intact.

Before Asking What It Means to Us

The Bible didn’t fall from heaven as a finished book with our name printed on the cover. God spoke through real human authors living in particular historical situations.

Isaiah spoke into the world of Judah, Assyria, kingship, war, judgment, and the hope of restoration. Jeremiah addressed people facing exile. Paul wrote Romans to house churches in the capital of the empire, where Jewish and Gentile believers were learning to live together as one people in Christ. Revelation was sent to seven actual churches in Asia Minor facing compromise, persecution, fear, and the seductions of imperial power.

These historical details aren’t optional background information. They’re part of the meaning.

That is why the first question shouldn’t be, “What does this verse mean to me?” The first question should be, “What was this author communicating to these people in their situation?”

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart describe interpretation as beginning with exegesis—carefully drawing out what the text meant in its original literary and historical setting—before moving toward its significance for us.¹ We begin with God because He is the center of the biblical story.

Once we understand what the passage says, we can begin asking how its truth addresses the church today.

For reflection: When you read a familiar verse, can you explain who first heard it and what circumstances they were facing?

Why the Bible Is Still Written for Us

Although the Bible’s authors didn’t address us directly, their words still speak powerfully to us today.

Paul explains that the Scriptures from former days instruct God’s people and nurture endurance and hope (Romans 15:4). He likewise presents Israel’s wilderness experiences as examples that teach and warn the church (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11).

We aren’t ancient Israelites wandering through the wilderness, Judean exiles living beside the rivers of Babylon, or first-century Christians living under Roman rule. Yet through Christ, we now share in their Scriptures and in the continuing story of God’s covenant faithfulness.

The God who created the world, called Abraham, delivered Israel, spoke through the prophets, and raised Jesus from the dead is our God.

Their story teaches us who He is.

The exodus reveals the God who hears the cries of the oppressed and defeats enslaving powers. Israel’s repeated failures expose the depth of human sin. The prophets reveal God’s passion for justice, holiness, mercy, and covenant faithfulness. Israel’s hope for restoration prepares the way for the Messiah and the renewal of creation.

The Bible is therefore for us because the story it tells hasn’t ended. Through Christ, God has drawn us into that story.

John Walton has repeatedly stressed the importance of recognizing that biblical texts emerged from an ancient world very different from our own.² Yet historical distance doesn’t make them irrelevant. It helps us understand the theological claims they were making so that we can receive them faithfully.

For reflection: Instead of asking only, “What promise can I claim?” ask, “What does this passage reveal about God and the story into which He has called us?”

Jesus Is the Bridge Between Their World and Ours

How, then, do we move from an ancient text to Christian faith and practice today?

We don’t make that journey through imagination alone. We make it through Jesus.

The Bible is not a random collection of moral lessons, predictions, inspiring personalities, and divine sayings. It tells the long story of God’s purpose to rescue His creation from sin, corruption, injustice, and death. That purpose comes to its decisive climax in Jesus the Messiah.

This means we shouldn’t immediately put ourselves into every story as its hero.

We aren’t David defeating our personal Goliaths, nor are we Joshua claiming our dream territory. Joseph’s story isn’t a guarantee that God will promote us into positions of influence. These accounts belong first to Israel’s story and ultimately point beyond themselves to God’s redemptive work in Christ.

David’s victory belongs first to Israel’s story of the anointed king. The exodus concerns God’s deliverance of an enslaved people and His formation of a covenant community. Israel’s return from exile belongs to the prophetic hope that God would forgive, restore, and reign.

These stories may shape how we face fear, oppression, suffering, and hope. But they do so as parts of the larger story fulfilled in Christ—not as flattering metaphors about our personal success.

Jesus doesn’t enter our story as a supporting character who helps us achieve our plans. Jesus invites us into His story, His kingdom, His suffering, His victory, and His mission.

N. T. Wright argues that Scripture exercises authority by carrying forward God’s redemptive purposes, reaching their climax in Jesus and continuing through the Spirit-led life of the church.³ That keeps our application centered on God’s kingdom rather than our ambition.

For reflection: Does your interpretation make Jesus the center of the passage, or does it quietly make you the main character?

Scripture Forms a People, Not Just Private Individuals

Another problem appears when we read every biblical “you” as though it means “me.”

In many New Testament passages, the word translated “you” is plural. Paul is addressing churches, not merely isolated believers.

When he tells the Corinthians, “You are God’s temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16), he is speaking about the congregation as God’s dwelling place.⁴ When he tells the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), he is addressing a community being called to embody the self-giving mind of Christ together.

Modern Christianity often turns these communal texts into private devotional statements. The result is a faith centered on my calling, my blessing, my purpose, my victory, and my spiritual experience.

But the gospel doesn’t merely rescue detached individuals. It creates a new humanity in Christ.

Jews and Gentiles are reconciled. Social barriers lose their controlling power. The strong are commanded to care for the weak. Spiritual gifts are given for the good of others. Believers learn to forgive, bear burdens, practice hospitality, share resources, pursue justice, and worship as one body.

The Bible was written for us as the people of God. Even its personal applications normally belong within the shared life of the church.

Reading communally also protects us from making our private interpretation absolute. Neither our traditions nor our pastors are infallible, and the same is true of our favorite scholars. Neither are our personal impressions.

We need the wider body of Christ, including voices from other cultures, generations, and traditions, to help expose what we may be missing.

For reflection: How would your interpretation change if you asked what the passage requires of the church, rather than only what it offers you personally?

Application Must Grow Out of Meaning

Once we’ve heard the text in its own world and located it within the story fulfilled in Christ, we can ask how it speaks to us.

Application matters. The goal of interpretation isn’t to collect historical facts. Scripture teaches, corrects, rebukes, and trains God’s people for faithful living (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

But the application must grow out of meaning. Otherwise, we’re only attaching religious language to ideas we already believe.

Return to Jeremiah 29:11. The popular application says, “God has a wonderful personal plan that guarantees my success.” The contextual application is deeper.

God remains faithful even when His people live in painful displacement. Hope doesn’t always mean immediate escape. Sometimes faithfulness means building, planting, serving, and waiting. False prophets often promise quick relief, but God’s redemptive purpose may unfold through patient endurance.

The original context doesn’t weaken the promise. It rescues the promise from sentimentality.

The same principle applies elsewhere.

Philippians 4:13—“I can do all things through him who strengthens me”—isn’t a guarantee that Christians can accomplish whatever they desire. Paul explains that Christ strengthens him to remain faithful in hunger or abundance, humiliation or honor, need or plenty.

“I can do all things” means Paul can endure every circumstance without abandoning his calling.

Likewise, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” in Proverbs 29:18 isn’t primarily about leaders creating ambitious organizational plans. The passage concerns the need for divine revelation and faithful obedience.

A text can be personally meaningful without being made to mean whatever we need at the moment.

J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays describe responsible application as crossing the distance between the biblical audience and the modern reader while preserving the theological principle rooted in the original passage.⁵ We cross the bridge. We don’t pretend the distance isn’t there.

For reflection: Is your application rooted in what the passage actually teaches, or could the same application have been attached to almost any verse?

Not Every Command Is Directly Our Command

The Bible contains commands given to particular people within particular covenantal settings.

Israel was commanded to practice circumcision, observe food laws, offer sacrifices at the temple, and keep the Sabbath as a covenant sign. Jesus told one rich ruler to sell everything he possessed. Paul asked Timothy to bring his cloak and parchments.

All these statements are part of Scripture, but not all are direct commands to every Christian.

We must ask where a command belongs within the unfolding biblical story.

How does it relate to creation? How does it relate to Israel’s covenant, the ministry of Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the coming of the Spirit? What enduring truth does it embody?

The sacrificial system points toward the once-for-all work of Christ. Circumcision is reconfigured around the Spirit’s work in the heart. Israel’s food laws no longer define the covenant people. Yet the holiness, faithfulness, and distinctiveness to which Israel was called aren’t discarded. They are transformed and embodied by a multiethnic church living under the lordship of Jesus.

Faithful interpretation neither imposes every command directly upon us nor dismisses difficult commands because we dislike them.

We listen for their place in the story and their fulfillment in Christ.

For reflection: Before applying a biblical command, ask, “To whom was this given, under what covenant, and how is it carried forward in Christ?”

The Spirit Doesn’t Bypass Careful Reading

Some believers worry that historical study makes Bible reading cold and academic. Shouldn’t we simply allow the Holy Spirit to speak?

Yes, we should depend on the Spirit. But the Spirit who inspired Scripture doesn’t contradict the message He gave through its human authors.

The Spirit can convict, comfort, expose, illuminate, and apply the ancient Word to present circumstances. Yet spiritual illumination isn’t permission to ignore history, grammar, genre, or context.

The Spirit doesn’t need us to misread Scripture to speak to us.

Careful interpretation is itself an act of humility. We slow down because we would rather not force our assumptions onto the text. We study because God chose to speak through human languages, ancient cultures, letters, narratives, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, the Gospel, and apocalyptic visions.

Prayer and study belong together.

We pray because understanding Scripture requires more than information. We study because sincerity alone doesn’t guarantee that we’ve understood what the author was saying.

The Spirit doesn’t erase the distance between the original audience and us. He enables us to cross that distance through Christ and embody the text faithfully in our setting.

For reflection: Do you ask the Spirit merely to confirm what you already think or to correct your assumptions through the actual message of Scripture?

A Simple Way to Read From Then to Now

We don’t need to become professional scholars before we can read the Bible responsibly. But we do need better habits.

First, read the whole paragraph or literary unit. A single verse usually does not carry the author’s complete thought.

Second, identify the speaker, writer, and original audience. Ask what problem, question, crisis, or pastoral need the passage addresses.

Third, recognize the genre. Poetry, wisdom, law, narrative, prophecy, letters, parables, and apocalyptic visions don’t communicate in the same way.

Fourth, locate the passage within the biblical story. Where does it stand in relation to creation, Israel, covenant, exile, Jesus, the Spirit, the church, resurrection, and new creation?

Fifth, ask what the passage reveals about God, humanity, sin, grace, justice, faithfulness, and the life of God’s people.

Finally, ask how this truth should reshape our worship, beliefs, relationships, public witness, and shared life today.

This approach may take longer than grabbing a verse and attaching it to our circumstances. But love listens carefully. If we truly honor Scripture, we won’t be satisfied with making it sound useful. We will want to understand what it says.

For reflection: Which of these reading habits is most absent from the way you currently approach the Bible?

Written Then, Still Speaking Now

The Bible was written for us, but not directly to us.

Without the words “for us,” Scripture becomes a museum piece—an engaging record of ancient religious communities with no living claim upon the church.

Without the words “not directly to us,” Scripture becomes a mirror reflecting only our ambitions, anxieties, politics, traditions, and personal concerns.

Both truths must be held together.

By entering the ancient world of the Bible, we allow its message to address our own world without distortion. Listening carefully to what God said to Israel, the prophets, the disciples, and the early churches helps us discern how the same faithful God continues to speak to His people today.

The Bible isn’t a bag of promises waiting for us to pull one out. It is the Spirit-breathed witness to the God who created the world, called Israel, fulfilled His promises in Jesus, formed a new people through the Spirit, and will renew all creation.

We aren’t the original audience.

But by grace, we have been brought into the story.

And when we read Scripture within that story, the Bible doesn’t become less personal. Instead, Scripture becomes far more powerful than a comforting verse for the day. It confronts, corrects, and forms us, teaching us how to live faithfully as God’s people under the lordship of Jesus.

Final question for reflection: Are we reading the Bible merely to discover ourselves in its pages, or are we allowing Scripture to locate us within God’s much larger story?

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