Blasé (bland or lazy) interpretation of the Bible abounds today, at least in some circles. Of course, when you make a statement like that, you invite the opposing argument that there are too many opinionated, uninformed, adamant, argumentative interpretations abounding as social media’s or armchair theologians’ fodder. Then again, a third party jumps into the ring pontificating against interpretations that merely regurgitate denominational dogma.

This brings me back to my original concern. A certain elitism has grown up that carries a sense of superiority in its doctrinal blandness. “We should be above the pettiness of doctrinal squabble.” Popular hermeneutics (the study of how to interpret the Bible) reduces us to skimming over the difficult passages to understand and focus on the “non-offensive” teachings.

For example, Jesus gave a new commandment, to love one another as God has loved us. We are to forgive also. Even the apostle Paul joined in with his famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. But lest these become mere sentimental pablum, the Bible roots love in our undeserved forgiveness wrought by Christ’s substitution on the cross, our reconciliation with Him, and our salvation from God’s judgment, which we rightly deserved.

We pride ourselves in being described as “Bible-believing” Christians, but are we “students” of the Word? Not everyone is a scholar, nor should we all be. But being a student means intelligently studying the Scripture to understand and hear God’s Word to us. This is an objective, cognitive investigation that requires mental energy. For sure, a daily “quiet time” is essential for growing in our spiritual relationship with the One who loved us, and for taking our place as recipients of God’s forgiveness of our sins. But our growing “in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” includes not only the subjective element but also the objective pursuit of knowing Him. Otherwise, we can easily succumb to unbiblical notions about God and what He has done for us.

On his second mission tour around the eastern Mediterranean basin, the apostle Paul ran into a group of Jews who held him accountable to the Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament). Paul was not offended by their unwillingness to take him at his word alone; the inspired record of the book of Acts presents this as an excellent thing for them to do:

The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:10–11)

On his third mission tour, Paul gave a dire warning to the Ephesian church’s elders. Today’s church has often relegated this leadership responsibility to a paid pastoral staff, but Paul made no such specification. There is no biblical warrant for asserting that the role of elder was limited in such a way. Listen to what he said to them:

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28–30)

Paul called the church’s spiritual leaders to responsibly guard against false teaching in themselves and the church. This requires a robust study and understanding of the Word of God. But this charge is for all of us, as the Berean example shows; we should all be studying the Scripture to verify the teaching we receive from our spiritual leaders. In other words, the elders are to guard us against false teachers and errant teaching, and we are to hold our elders accountable to the Word of God. If God commended the Bereans for verifying the apostle’s teaching, then we should do likewise with the spiritual leaders in our churches.

It is commonly said that a political democracy works only insofar as its citizens are educated and can intelligently evaluate the issues. The church is not a democracy; it is a spiritual organism, the family of God. We can remain faithful to God only insofar as we are all educated by the Holy Spirit through studying God’s Word, the Bible. If not, then the church lies at the mercy of spiritual dictators or to be run like a non-profit club, or a corporation with a CEO, with religious strongmen in the pastoral position of prominence, like “Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them” (3 John 9).

No, we cannot afford blasé or bland interpretations that avoid the biblical doctrines that are under attack by false teachers. Yes, that may mean disagreements with other churches and denominations over essential teachings of Scripture; we cannot shy away from acknowledging that, but we each need to study for ourselves what God’s truth is. Truth is important and worth guarding—but we must know the truth!

Lord, I take Paul’s challenge to heart and want to “[b]e diligent to present [myself] approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).