A Bible Lesson at Work???

It's not such a strange thing to hear a Bible lesson at work, if you work in a church related job that is. However, I do not. I work for a large engineering company. Imagine my surprise today when the first slide of today's all hands meeting had a Bible verse. The slide quoted:

"You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit."

This passage is from Matthew 7:16-18 in the New King James Version. The verse was used to highlight negativity within our company towards our customer and our operations. It highlighted that if this is our attitude how can we ever expect to do anything good. So if you're negative, you're bad fruit, and if you're positive, you're good fruit. So that seems like good wisdom to take home. In itself, I'd probably say that's generally true, however this passage was taken grossly out of context and brought out a message that the reader wanted to find in Scripture rather than let the Scriptures speak for themselves. Sadly this happens alot in the church as well. It's called bad hermeneutics.

The true meaning of the passage can be seen if we zoom out a little more and add the surrounding verses to the quoted passage:

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Suddenly this becomes a much different message than urging to act positive. It's talking about false teachers and how to recognize them. You will know them by their fruits, or how they act, or what they are motivated by. If we zoom out a little more and see the surrounding passages, we get a little more insight. Before the passage:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

And after the passage:

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Now it is apparent that it's not just about identifying false teachers but also true believers. I can't help but marvel at the irony that this passage was used out of context in a secular setting. This is a passage that says that good works have no merit with God. He doesn't know us by our works. He knows us by our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Yet from the same text we were given instruction on being more positive or taking the moral high ground. It was just a small harmless piece taken out of one of the more frightening passages of Scripture.

I didn't write this to criticize one of my superiors. I don't even know if he's a Christian and you can't expect good interpretation from an unbeliever. Instead, I wrote this to show the importance of good hermeneutics. It's a big word, but it's something every Christian should know how to do. Practice good hermeneutics people! Know the context. Let the Scriptures speak for themselves. Avoid taking what you believe and finding verses that match what you think. Let the Scriptures bring out what you should believe and share that.

150 Days to Go

I put a countdown on my computer to count the days until my wedding, haha. 150 days means I can read the Psalms backwards (one each day) and when I finish the Psalms, I'll be getting married!

I had this discussion with J recently. It went something like this:

Skitguru: I put a countdown on my computer so I know how many days we have left.
J: Why did you do that? It would be so agonizing.

(at the same time we said)
Skitguru: I know. It's so long from now!
J: See how little time we have left!

Ha ha, I guess we come from different perspectives on the planning.