Blog #8: Comparison and Conclusion
This is the final blog in a series of blogs in which I have been breaking down the message for the church in Laodicea found in Revelation 3:14-22. In the first seven blogs, I walked through the five steps of interpreting scripture as described in Grasping God’s Word: Grasping the Text in Their Town, Measuring the Width of the River to Cross, Crossing the Principlizing Bridge, Consulting the Biblical Map, and Grasping the Text in Our Town (Duvall and Hays, 42-46). I gave the background and context of the passage, developed a verse-by-verse commentary, established the essence of the text in a sentence, identified what I believe to be the Timeless Theological Principle (TTP) that is found in the passage, took another look at the TTP through the lens of the rest of the Bible to ensure it was not heretical, and developed application based on the TTP for people in today’s world. In this final blog, I will wrap up my analyzing of the passage by comparing my original understanding of this passage to how I came to understand it due to the interpretive journey. Doing so, I will demonstrate how the interpretive journey can be incredibly helpful for understanding passages of scripture correctly, as the author intended.
TYSpace for Mac lies within System Tools, more precisely General. From the developer: This is a beautiful gis map software, use a grand new elegant design.Support both vector layer and raster layer rendering.
“What Does This Passage Mean?”
- Is there a way that performance art is not the most unique form of art? I do believe that performance is the most unique variety/medium of art. This is perhaps/probably because of her philosophical wherewithall when it comes to art; if another equally as intelligent critic had argued that prose was the most unique form, I might agree with them.
- Braunton is an English village, civil parish, ecclesiastical parish and former manor in Devon.The village is situated 5 miles (8 km) west of Barnstaple.While not the largest village in England, it is amongst the most populous in Devon with a population at the 2011 census of 7,353 people.
Before beginning the interpretive journey several months ago, I was given a list of verses to choose from and write a paper describing what I understood the passage to mean without any additional studying. The passage I chose was Revelation 3:15-16 which says:
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
The following is what I originally wrote for my interpretation of this passage. After the text I will explain how my understanding of the passage has drastically changed due to studying the passage through the interpretive journey.
Original Paper:
For my “What Does This Mean” paper, I chose Revelation 3:15-16. These verses are talking about how our lives we live will be seen by God. In verse 15, we see that God knows our works because he is omniscient; therefore, He knows what happens and what we do. Because of this, He knows how we live our lives. He knows if our “faith” is truly authentic faith, and He knows if we are mere cultural Christians. In this particular passage, the direct recipients of this message were living in a way that was neither fully for Christ nor fully against Him. We see that God would rather us be radically for Him or vehemently against Him. The analogies of water temperature is used here saying He would rather us be hot or cold than lukewarm. “Christians” who don’t fully dedicate their lives to Christ are rejected, or “spit out.” These Christians would be the people who claim to be Christians, maybe even go to church on Sundays, but then go about their lives blending into the world and not letting their life reflect Christ.
What this means for Christians is that we need to fully dedicate our lives and live in a way that others can tell that there is something different about us. When you touch water, you can clearly tell immediately when you touch hot or cold water. On a hot summer day when you have been outside working for hours and you get some water, there is nothing that quenches the thirst like ice-cold water. In the same way, on a cold winter morning when you wake up and are struggling to get around, a steaming hot cup of coffee, made with boiling hot water, is just what you need. Lukewarm water would be an absolute disgust in either of these scenarios. That is how lukewarm Christians are to God. If we are going to live as Christians, we must find a way to make sure that we, and our congregations are truly on fire for God.
How My Understanding of the Passage Changed
As I have gone through the interpretive journey, I have come to realize my original interpretation of this passage was incorrect. When I originally wrote this paper, my understanding of this passage was primarily based on an incorrect interpretation that I had heard many times. The idea that the hot and cold faith meant that an individual was either on fire for God or completely against Him somewhat made sense, when taken out of context; however, the more I studied the passage and dwelt on it, the more I realized that interpretation really did not make sense. Why would Christ want anyone to be completely against Him? It is very clear throughout the rest of the Bible that God does not desire anyone to perish, but calls all people to come and follow Him.
What revolutionized my view of this passage was learning that the temperatures were actually likely referring to the different temperatures of water from the cities around Laodicea in comparison to the lukewarm water that plagued Laodicea. Both hot and cold water are beneficial in one way or another. With this insight, I was able to see that the temperatures were actually referring to faith that is beneficial (i.e. hot or cold) versus faith that is not beneficial (i.e. lukewarm). So it has become clear to me that my original interpretation of the temperatures was incorrect.
Even though a portion of my original understanding was incorrect, the application for Christians today was actually not completely incorrect. I said that Christians should strive to not be lukewarm in their faith, which is a correct general interpretation. I still stand behind this application, although the meaning of lukewarm in my mind has changed. Instead of it meaning Christians who aren’t all-in for God, it means individuals who do not have an intimate relationship with Christ, producing beneficial faith.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I am very thankful for the 5 steps of the interpretive journey. I have been humbled by the process and have learned that this is a great way to correctly interpret scripture and understand it. I have also learned that sometimes verses that are incredibly well known, such as this one, can be drastically misinterpreted if not studied correctly and taken in context. That is why it is important for everyone, especially those who are teaching and preaching scripture to study the text in a way similar to the 5 step interpretive journey.
WEEK 7:
1. Dedicate a whole page to your class, your school, or both!
2. Draw your reflection in a shiny surfaced object. (try hard. Its easier than you think if you actually look into a shiny object.
3. If you were a Super Hero:
What would you be called? What would your powers be? (come up with atleast 3) ex.superman could fly, see through buildings, and was excessively strong.) what would be your weakness or Achilles heel? ( ex. Super man had crytonite: A rock from his home planet that canceled out his powers.) & last but not least who would be your arch nemisis: that bad guy, or good guy if you are bad!)
4. Free Draw
Myspace Backgrounds
5. Free Draw