Putting the Truth to Work

The Theory and Practice of Biblical Application

Daniel M. Doriani

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2001
• ISBN:
  9781629954257
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Ideal for pastors and professors, this book explains how to apply Scripture to daily life. It identifies four categories of application and shows how they function in doctrinal passages.

1
The Nature of Application

Long ago, there was a kingdom called Bible-land. It was a fair country, well populated by kind and industrious people, but a river cut a ragged path through its entire length, dividing the country into two provinces. In some places the river was placid, so that the people crossed it freely and gained much from their conversation and trade. But elsewhere it raged with treacherous currents that carried away even the strongest swimmers and stoutest bridges. In some regions the swirling torrents carved canyons too broad, it seemed, for any span.

In these regions, though the separated people of Bible-land still honored each other, they found it difficult to trade, whether in objects or in wisdom. They did not become poor, precisely, but they were poorer, they knew, than their fellow citizens in places where the river was shallow and safe. Without the exchange of goods or ideas, they developed increasingly different ways of farming and manufacture, until as years passed, they could scarcely comprehend each other’s ways on occasions when they did meet. Frustrated, some doubted that they should even attempt to cross the river. But wiser people trusted the reports of fine trade in other places, and they resolved to build bridges across even the broadest, ugliest ditches and deepest waters.¹

This book is for those who want to cross a river representing barriers to the communication of God’s word wrought by the passing of time and changes in cultures and language. In the language of the allegory, this book is more for builders than for architects, for communicators more than theorists. There will be theory in this book, but it will focus on texts.² But first things first. Let’s begin with the God-centered nature of biblical application.

TO KNOW GOD AND CONFORM OURSELVES TO HIM

A God-centered approach to the relevance of Scripture has two foci: knowing the God who redeems and conforming ourselves to him. Jeremiah wrote,

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD. (Jer. 9:23–24)

Jesus says, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Paul says, “I want to know Christ” (Phil. 3:10).The goal is to know God, love him (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37), believe in him (John 20:31), walk faithfully with him (Mic. 6:8), and increase in likeness to him.³ The “old self . . . is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Col. 3:9–10).The goal of our redemption is to make us more and more like God, and ever more like Christ, who is the perfect image of God (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 3:9–10).⁴

Perhaps this seems obvious. Yet many Christians act as if there were another center of application. For some it is law and obedience. But we must remember that the center of the law is God himself. “Love God,” says the first command. “Love others as God loves,” says the second. Even when we fail to obey, the law leads us to him, as we flee to Christ for mercy.

Others concentrate on health, happiness, maturity, or a meaningful life. But we know the futility of dwelling upon health, pleasure, or earth-bound significance.Whoever lives for physical pleasure will eventually agree with Marie Antoinette,“Nothing tastes.” Living for health and existence becomes a tragedy; after a long slow decline, every hero dies at the end of his story. Living for meaning and history reads like theater of the absurd, tales full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

We lose sight of the center of application when we promise happiness and maturity to the lost. Happiness and maturity are common results of life with God, but we dare not confuse results with the essence. While believers should expect to enjoy God’s blessings and to find release from the self-entrapping nature of sin, the Prince of Peace also promises opposition and tribulation. He casts fire on the earth (Luke 2:34; 12:4–12, 49–53).True disciples do not seek the life of ease that pagans run after. In Jesus’ day, pagans chased food, drink, clothing, and long life (Matt. 6:25–32).Today, pagans also pursue what is comfortable, popular, profitable, peaceful, and therapeutic. Jesus tells both, “Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (v. 33, my translation).

So Bible application promotes a relationship with God and conformity to him. We honor the law because we exalt God, who gave it and reveals himself in it.We honor virtue because virtue is conformity to God’s character (not simply because no one can take it from us). This double goal of knowing God and conforming to him pervades Scripture, from Eden and Sinai to the teaching of Jesus and Paul. When God spoke to Adam and walked with him in the garden before the fall,Adam and Eve needed only to retain their conformity to God’s character, for God created them in his image and likeness, holy, righteous, rulers of the world.⁵ But the fall bespeaks Adam’s failure to know God enough to trust him.

At Sinai, God established a covenant with the newborn nation of Israel. The covenant begins with Israel’s knowledge of her relationship with God: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). The first commands cement their relationship, one marked by love and honor. “You shall have no other gods before me” means Israel owes God exclusive loyalty. Any breach of that loyalty is “in his face,” to use today’s argot.⁶ “You shall make no idols” means we must not fashion God in images of our choosing. God made one image of himself—humankind. Now he forbids that we make another. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God” means, among other things, that we should never idly claim to worship God or to belong to him.

The later commands instruct the faithful to conform themselves to God’s person and pattern of activity. This is clearest in the sixth through tenth commands.

• God says,“You shall not murder” for he is the God who gives life, physical and spiritual.
• He says,“You shall not commit adultery,” for he is faithful to his people.
• He commands, “You shall not steal,” for he is a giving God, sending sun, rain, and the fecundity of the earth to all.
• God commands,“You shall not give false testimony,” for he is truth and his word is truth.
• God says,“You shall not covet,” for he is generous, delighting to give gifts to his children.

Even the fourth and fifth commands require that our ways harmonize with his.We labor six days, then rest, because God labored six days and rested.We honor father and mother because God bestowed dignity and honor on humans, especially those who exercise authority for him.

When Jesus instructed his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, he, like the Father at Sinai, required his followers to conform themselves to him.⁷ This is clearest in the Beatitudes, where Jesus blesses traits that the Gospels later attribute to him.

• Jesus blesses those who mourn. He mourned over Israel, a nation of sheep without a shepherd, a nation that would not let him gather her children under his wings (Matt. 9:36; 23:37).
• Jesus blesses the meek (praüs); he says,“I am meek [praüs] and humble,” for he lays an easy yoke on his people (Matt. 11:28–30).
• He blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He received baptism, not from need, but to fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15). He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, personally and in his disciples, that their righteousness might exceed the scribes’ and Pharisees’ (5:17–20).
• Jesus blesses the merciful. His mercy and compassion (Matt. 14:14; 15:22, 32; 17:15; 20:30–31, 34; Mark 5:19; Luke 7:13; 17:13) moved him to aid the needy.
• He blesses the pure in heart. He was so pure his enemies could find no plausible charge to bring against him at his trial (Matt. 26:59–60), so pure he dared invite his foes to convict him of sin (John 8:46).⁸
• Jesus blesses peacemakers. He healed people and sent them off in peace (Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50). He bestowed peace on his disciples (John 14:27; 16:33; Luke 24:36) and authorized his disciples to bestow peace on Israel (Matt. 10:13), though not at any price (10:34).
• Jesus blesses the persecuted. He was persecuted unto death, despite his innocence.

Jesus only declined to ascribe one beatitude to himself, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” But if (as most interpreters believe) poverty of spirit is awareness of one’s spiritual neediness, we see why.⁹ For however far we progress toward Jesus, a gap remains between Creator and creature, between Redeemer and redeemed. Yet Jesus bridges that gulf by loving and identifying with the poor in spirit, by teaching, healing, and dining with them—with us.

Paul’s letters propound the same ideal of knowledge of God and conforming to him.The Ephesians know the Son of God and become mature by attaining “the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). They have “come to know Christ”; thus they put on the new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:20–24).They are now “imitators of God,” loving one another and forgiving one another as Christ did (4:32–5:2). Paul’s goal is “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fel...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The Nature of Application
• 2 God-Centered Application
• 3 The Interpreter
• 4 The Seven Biblical Sources for Application
• 5 The Four Aspects of Application
• 6 Using the Four Questions
• Interlude: A Brief Reminder on Interpretation and Context
• 7 A Plan for Applying Narrative
• 8 Issues in Applying Narrative Texts
• 9 A Plan for the Application of Doctrine
• 10 A Plan for the Application of Ethical Texts
• 11 Issues in Application of Ethical Texts
• 12 Christ-Centered Application
• 13 Selecting a Text
• Index of Scripture
• Index of Names and Subjects