Doctrine Of Bible Interpretation 6 (spiritual Awareness) by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Distinction Between a False Teacher and a Wrong Teacher

There is an important distinction between a false teacher and a wrong teacher. The scripture gives us this distinction through Apollos. The Bible says he was eloquent and knew the scriptures, but only up to John the Baptist. Aquilas and Priscilla pulled him aside and expanded scripture to him in a more excellent way — explaining the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He received that correction and went on to Corinth as a blessing. That is how Paul could say: Paul planted, Apollos watered, and the Lord gave the increase.

• A wrong teacher is someone who teaches incorrectly but, when shown the truth from scripture, adjusts quickly.
• A false teacher deliberately distorts scripture for personal gain and will not adjust even when confronted with truth — because the distortion is intentional. It is an agenda.

Jude 1:4 — certain men crept in unnoticed, marked out for condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of God into license and denied the only Lord God and Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:8 — those same dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. One of the signs of a false teacher is speaking badly of other people's ministries. Anyone who comes out to disparage another person's ministry reveals something about where they are spiritually.

This is not a matter of "if it's not our way, it's not the way." That is a myopic mindset. Pride assumes that if something is outside your ecosystem, it is not real. Spiritual discernment requires enough humility to recognize that God may be doing something beyond what is familiar. The Pharisees were not an ethnic group — Pharisaism is an ideology that says any God who cannot fit within my framework is not the real God. That is the spirit that called Jesus false when he came with the new and living way.

Ministry Flows From Encounter

The body of Christ is extremely dynamic. God sends people as apostles to emphasize particular realities — and most of them carry that emphasis from a specific altar, a specific place of encounter.

Moses encountered God at Mount Horeb. From that place, God commissioned him to bring out the children of Israel. He received the Ten Commandments on that same mountain. The law came through Moses from the place of his encounter. Exodus 3:10 — "Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

A minister is not just a preacher. A minister is someone who has divine realities to administer. When you join a church, what you encounter on Sundays is the fruit of the pastor's secret place. The dynamism you see in the body of Christ exists because of the distinctions in encounter.

How the Spirit Realm Works

What is amplified is what is being focused on. When a group is constantly praying warfare prayers, that focus amplifies the reality of spiritual attack in their experience. Two people can walk into the same room — one perceives angelic activity, another perceives demonic activity. Both can be correct. But what expands is what is being looked for.

Train the mind to pray for, not against. Instead of praying against war, pray for peace. Instead of praying against lack, pray for abundance. The Bible says God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what can be asked, thought, or imagined — and that capacity operates in the positive.

Daniel in Daniel 10 is the model for this. With spiritual warfare raging around him, Daniel never prayed against. He simply kept doing what he had to do. Sometimes, being immovable in devotion is the greatest act of spiritual warfare.

Nehemiah 8:8 — The Standard for Teaching

Nehemiah 8:8 — they read distinctly from the book, the law of God, gave the sense, and helped the people understand the reading.

That is the task of a teacher. To take in at a deeper level in order to distribute in a form people can receive.

There are three categories of sonship in the Greek New Testament:

• Brephos — a newborn, someone who just gave their life to Christ. Like newborn babies, they need the sincere milk of the word to grow.
• Nepios — a child who has been in the faith for a time but remains immature. Hebrews 5:13 — he who uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
• Huios — the mature, appointed son. The one who has come into full understanding of how the Father operates and can replicate it.

Galatians 4:1-4 illustrates this — as long as an heir is a child, he does not differ from a slave, though he is master of all. He is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law — so that the adoption might be received.

Galatians 3:23-24 — before faith came, humanity was under the law as a guardian, kept for the faith that was to be revealed. The law was a tutor to bring people to Christ.

Maturity is not measured by how long someone has been in the faith, but by whether they have come to Christ. Coming to Christ means understanding that salvation is by grace through faith — not by personal performance. Judging acceptance with God based on what is done, rather than what Christ has done, is immaturity — regardless of how much scripture is known.

The adopted son — like Moses in Pharaoh's house, like Solomon among David's children — is the one who understands the father's ways and can reproduce them. Firstborn does not automatically mean appointed.

A mature teacher eats meat in order to produce milk — studying the word at a deep level precisely to communicate it simply.

Simplicity is evidence of mastery. When something is well understood, it can be explained to a six-year-old. If you cannot break it down to that level, the understanding is not yet complete. When people leave confused, that is not their limitation — it is the teacher's responsibility.

Exegesis and Eisegesis

Two foundational terms for Bible interpretation:

• Exegesis — to draw out the intended meaning from the text. The question it asks is: What did God communicate through the author in this context?
• Eisegesis — to read one's own idea into the text. This is the root of most misunderstood scriptures.

The text has one meaning — the meaning intended by the author in that context. Misunderstanding is to arrive at a different conclusion than what was said. Personal revelation and emotional response do not constitute interpretation. Bad Bible study is asking "How do you see it?" as though personal perspective is a valid lens for what God intended.

Ephesians 4:11-14 — God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ — till the whole body comes to unanimity of faith. That means understanding the same things pertaining to faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

The goal is not to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

Over 7,000 different ideologies have emerged from the same 66 books of the Bible. That is the result of "how I see it" replacing contextual interpretation. When every person brings their personal revelation to the table, the outcome is division, not unity.

When God quickens a specific text to someone during personal study — perhaps in a way that is specific to their situation — that quickening is personal and should not necessarily be taught as doctrine. What God gave for personal healing may not apply the same way to others. What is prophetic for one can become error for another.

How to Wrongly Divide the Word of Truth — From 2 Timothy 2

2 Timothy 2:15 — be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Greek word for "rightly dividing" is orthotomeo — to cut straight, like a craftsman making a precise cut. The context of this command is the letter itself. The ways people wrongly divide the word of truth are shown within the same letter.

You may also like

The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit

by Apostle Joshua Selman

arrow_forward

Ways to Wrongly Divide the Word of God

1. Handling the Word for the Approval of Men

   2 Timothy 2:15 — the text does not say "study to make yourself approved." It says "study to show yourself approved." The approval is already there. Let it show. The first way to wrongly handle the word of God is to be performative — seeking to sound impressive rather than to be accurate. Contextual interpretation is the most powerful teaching tool available. Even if what is said is not exciting, if it is correct — it is correct.

2. Quarreling Over Words

   2 Timothy 2:14 — remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to argue about words. Disputing over words profits nothing and generates strife. 2 Timothy 2:23 — avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate conflict.

3. Profane and Vain Babbling

   2 Timothy 2:16 — shun profane and idle babbling, for they will increase to more ungodliness. The word "profane" there is bebelos — meaning something worldly or without spiritual value. In Hebrews 12, Esau is described as profane because he had no value for spiritual things — that is why he sold his birthright. "Vain babbling" is kenophonia in the Greek — empty-sounding words or fruitless discussions.

   Teaching things that have no application is a form of wrongly dividing the word. The danger of fruitless knowledge is that it can open someone to the spirit realm without the Holy Spirit as a guide. The Bible is a deeply spiritual book. Without the right tour guide, someone can pick up an error — and the way the spirit realm works, they will begin to receive more and more confirmation for that error. There is nothing worse than being wrong while being convinced that everything right is wrong.

   Half-knowledge is the most dangerous kind. When someone has wrong knowledge, truth is new to them and they can receive it. When someone has half-knowledge, truth sounds familiar — and they become defensive.

You Can Be Trapped in Bible Culture

It is possible to be fully immersed in the culture of the Bible — the language, the history, the customs — and never experience the revelation of God's word. Biblical knowledge and the revelation of Christ are not the same thing.

The two most transformative revelations a believer can possess:

• God is my Father — he relates to his people as sons, not servants. This changes everything about what is received, because a father gives not just what is wanted but what is best.
• God loves me — not as an opinion, but as a settled conviction. When circumstances look bad, resurrection power is at work.

These are not supplementary truths. They are the entire message of the Bible.

Why did they kill Jesus? Not because of the miracles. Because he called God his Father. The religious understood something that Christians often refuse to: to claim God as Father is to claim oneness with God. They put Jesus on a cross for it. That same revelation — that God is truly Father — is what every believer should pursue.

Without this foundation, life's repeated disappointments become evidence of a curse. With it, they become evidence that God is insisting on something better. The same events interpreted from a slave mindset produce victimhood. Interpreted through the lens of a son, they produce trust.

God Is Not Hiding

A God who wrote 66 books wants his people to know him — more than they want to know him. He is not a mystery.

Jesus said: to them it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to you it is given. When the temple veil was torn, God was not concealing himself — he was saying, "Come and see me." The death of Jesus is an invitation to behold God.

He can be known, and known correctly. In the Old Testament, God was judge, king, warrior. But the fullness of who he is was not yet fully revealed. The revelation of the New Covenant is this: he is Father.

When reading the Old Testament, the positioning matters. When God destroys Jericho, the believer is not Jericho. When he defeats the Amalekites, the believer is not the Amalekite. The believer is the one for whom God is doing all of that.

The word of God is one of the most powerful forces in existence — and it is a double-edged sword. It has been used to liberate and to enslave. This is why rightly dividing the word of truth is not a preference — it is a responsibility.