Understanding The Bible: The Secret.

Understanding the bible is something many have struggled with for ages. The secret to understanding the bible is to rightly divide the word of truth. The bible itself tells us to rightly divide the word of truth. Many do not understand what this means. This gives us a great clue as to how to study and interpret the bible. We must divide the word of God by keywords. That means to take a keyword and study it throughout the bible, dividing up the bible by the keyword for study.

God has hidden the spiritual meaning of the words in the bible. Within certain verses, God reveals to us what he means by certain words. For example, the bible tells us we are redeemed from the curse of the law. Therefore, we know the law is associated with the curse. When God uses the word curse, he is giving a reference to the law. For example, he tells us many have a mouth full of cursing and bitterness. We know from the other verse with the word curse, these men are speaking about the law, they are cursing. They are teaching that one must keep the law in the flesh by their own works of righteousness. When we rightly divide the word of God, we see the hidden meaning of these verses.

Another example, the bible tells us the law worketh wrath. Therefore, we know that verses with the word wrath are associated with the law as well. This is why the bible tells us the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. That is to say, when we try to keep the law in the flesh by our own works of righteousness, we are not keeping the righteousness of God. For the bible tells us the righteousness of God comes by faith, not by the law of works. Dividing the word to understand the hidden wisdom allows us to see what God is really saying.

The bible tells us that the word of God is full of hidden wisdom. It also tells us the natural mind is not subject to the law of God. We cannot use our own natural wisdom and vocabulary to understand the word of God. As seen above, we must use the definition God gives us of his words. The law of God is spiritual with hidden meaning. The natural mind cannot understand the word of God.

The bible tells us the words of God are spirit and they are life. That lets us know God is speaking of spiritual things, and not natural. Many realize that Jesus is not a literal loaf of bread when he says he is the bread of life. Many also realize he didn't mean for us to eat his literal flesh and drink his literal blood when he said to do so. However, many do not realize the entire word of God is referencing spiritual things. For example, the bible tells us not to be fornicators. Many will interpret things such as this to be literal. However, the entire word of God must be followed spiritual, not just bits and pieces. Fornication is associated with Mystery Babylon, the false church, and her false doctrine. The bible tells us many are drunk with her fornication, false doctrine. You cannot be drunk with literal fornication. This is a reference to not being in the right mind (being drunk) following false doctrine (fornication). God used fornication in the old testament to reference laying with other Gods (fornicating with strange Gods). This natural event conveys a spiritual idea to us. This is to show the uncleanness of following false doctrine, the filthyness, the whoredom.

The main thing to keep in mind when studying the bible is the fact that faith alone is Jesus Christ is required for salvation. When the bible appears to tell us we must live by a certain rule, we must remember faith alone in Jesus is all that is required. We must look for the hidden meaning. For example, the bible commands us not to lie. This appears to give us a rule we must follow in the flesh by our own works. However, when we divide the word with the keyword "liar", we find the spiritual definition of a liar given to us from God. 1 John 2:22 tells us a liar is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Therefore, when we believe in Jesus, we are keeping the spiritual meaning of the commandment not to lie. This is why the bible tells us the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That is to say, we follow the spiritual meaning of the commandment which is to have faith in Jesus, and not the natural meaning of the commandment by trying not to tell a lie. Therefore, to understand the bible, we must always keep in mind faith alone in Jesus is required to please God, not our own good works in the flesh. If something seems to tells us we must do more by our own works of righteousness, we are misinterpreting the word of God.

To understand the bible, one must have the spirit of God. Without the spirit of God teaching us the spiritual meaning of the word of God, we will misinterpret the bible. The bible tells us we must compare spiritual things with spiritual. The spirit of God is the one who teaches us his word. Without the spirit of God, we will not be able to see the spiritual meaning. Without the spirit of God, one will try to follow the word of God by it's natural meaning. The spirit keeps us in the mindset that the word of God is speaking of spiritual things, and then reveals these spiritual things to us.

There are a few rules that will keep us on track when studying the bible.

1. Remember faith alone in Jesus Christ is all that is required to earn and to keep salvation.

2. We must remember the bible is spiritual and look for the hidden spiritual meaning.

3. We must compare verses throughout the scripture containing the same keywords for study.

4. When something appears to give us a rule we must follow by our own works in the flesh to please God, we must look for a hidden, spiritual meaning that keep us in harmony with faith as the only requirement for salvation.

5. We must let God define the words in the bible, and not use our natural wisdom and vocabulary.

If we do these things, we should not err from the faith by believing our own works of righteousness in the flesh are required to please God. When we believe our own works of the flesh are necessary, we deny faith. Faith and works are contrary the one to the other. We either trust in faith in Jesus Christ, or our own works of righteousness. We cannot trust both for salvation. If we believe both are necessary, we are really trusting in works alone. The bible, however, tells us faith without works is dead. This is speaking of a faith that shows with our works. When we believe faith alone is sufficient, we will not try to live by any rules in the flesh to please God. Our works will then show that we are trusting in faith alone, and not works.

The secret to understanding the bible is holding fast to the fact that faith alone in Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation, and not our own works of righteousness. Realizing this, we must rightly divide the word of truth. We must remember that word of God is spiritual with hidden wisdom contained therein.