Can Christians disagree about scriptural interpretation?

July 25, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

We always have. We’ve not agreed completely about which day to worship on, or whether Jesus had two natures or one, or whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son or from the Father only; on whether one should baptize a child and if so at what age. . .  Some of these disagreements are unnecessary.  After all, we can and should worship and praise God every day of the week. Why should Christians split up into different parties over the day for worship?

Even more fundamentally, we see disagreement within the Scripture itself.  The most obvious is where Jesus said to the people, “You have heard it said . . . but I say unto you.” The ideas to which he referred were themselves written in Holy Scripture–in the Old Testament–but Jesus gave these passages new interpretations.

The question which arises is, did Jesus mean to correct a wrong interpretation with a right one (his interpretation)? Or did he encourage his hearers to think more deeply about the commonly-held views by suggesting there are alternative ways to view the same holy texts?  Did he give a once-for-all, definitive new interpretation which all Christians are to accept, or was he telling his followers that we have permission to look at texts carefully and reflectively in order to find new meanings?

Disagreements are part of the fabric and fiber of discernment.  We are called to look at scriptures deeply, not merely to find the “right” answers, as if they are hidden from us at first glance.  We are called to think, reflect, pray, and converse with other believers, in order to deepen our understanding of ourselves, of life, and of God.  Even the things about which most Christians would agree still require each and every one of us to think deeply about and wrestle with the significance of the Bible for our own lives.  It is only in this way that we become disciples.

But there is one “right way” to interpret the whole Bible. While we may disagree, in the short term or in the long term, about the applicability or usefulness of parts of Scripture, when the Bible is received as a whole there is one right way to interpret it: it leads us to faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.  On this there is no disagreement, nor should there be.  “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

John’s summary of the Gospel is also a summary of the applicability of the whole Bible to life.  The purpose of the Bible is to lead to the faith in God’s promises which lead to life.  There is no need to insert a long list of qualifiers, “yes, buts,” conditions or exclusions to our interpretation of Scripture.  As long as we have the core truth about Jesus Christ at the center, and hold it as an indispensable truth for our lives, we can disagree, discern, wrestle, and yet remain committed to one another as fellow believers.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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