There are many people who want to examine scripture to suit their own lifestyles. Some examine it from a political mindset, others through the lens of their "rights," and still others from a lifestyle they live. There are many ways to read and interpret the Bible, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I will offend someone with this next statement: they are all false ways of looking at scripture unless you are examining the Word of God by nothing but the Holy Spirit. We cannot look at the Word of God by any other means: the Bible does not support out lifestyles, because apart from Christ we are in rebellion; we cannot look at the Bible from a patriotic standpoint because this world is not our home, it's passing away; we cannot even look at the Bible from a "religious" standpoint, because there is no work that can please God, apart from following (submitting to and obeying) His son Jesus Christ. Scripture is not up to interpretation. The more I read it, the more straight forward it is. Yet it is the Interpreter, the Holy Spirit, that gives us wisdom and understanding. The Holy Spirit is why Scripture seems different every time, even as we read familiar passages. The Holy Spirit is who convinces and convicts us, and we can't turn Him off, as we do inconvenient apps on our phones and devices. He is the lens by which we read, hear, and interpret Scripture, and there is no other source apart from His guidance. If we try to do it any other way, we're seeking ourselves, and not God through His word. Why is this so important? Dependence on the Holy Spirit is an indicator of our trust in God. Too many people are seeking a "left answer" or a "right answer" or any other answer apart from the Christ answer; we are walking by sight and not by Faith. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so we would have Him always, even as His physical body was absent, we could commune with Him through the implanted Holy Spirit given to all His followers. He (the Holy Spirit) is not merely a lens for interpreting Scripture, but the One who will apply and interpret God's word and God's will through every aspect of our lives. We just need to learn to depend on Him. John 14:15-31 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will beg in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
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