Applying the Bible According to the Bible

I’d like to address an important topic for any preacher: how to apply the text to the contemporary audience. Application scares many pastors, with some asserting that they leave application entirely to the Holy Spirit.

While the Holy Spirit is the power behind both the interpretation and application of Scripture, trying to “leave it all to Him” is an abdication of the pastor’s responsibility. Biblical texts merit application to the congregation’s contemporary situation for three reasons: first, the nature of Scripture requires it; second, the teaching in Scripture warrants it; finally, the examples in Scripture model it.

The Nature of the Bible Requires a Preacher Apply It to His Audience

The biblical authors wrote to specific people in specific situations at specific times. Yet God intends all Scripture to benefit every believer, even those centuries removed from the original setting. Paul explains in Romans 15:4 that “whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” In the first ten verses of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul recounts the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness. He concludes in verse 11 that “these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” The Bible is a “transgenerational” book, written to particular people in a particular time and situation, but applicable to every subsequent generation of believers.¹ Casillas elaborates:

“Scripture functions paradigmatically. Its specifics teach universal truths that speak to issues beyond the scope of the issues originally addressed. Another way of saying this is that God expects us to pursue in our setting the ultimate purpose(s) He had in mind when He communicated a text to its first audience.”²

No one can expect a legal text to specify every application of its principles for future generations. Accordingly, the Lord made many of the Bible’s principles general in nature, anticipating future believers would insightfully apply these timeless principles to their specific situations. Making specific applications from general principles is a normal part of interpreting ancient documents. Even Old Covenant believers, to whom God directly gave the laws of the Pentateuch, had to work out practical applications from God’s general commands.

Abraham Kuruvilla employs the analogy of the United States’ Constitution, from which judges discern specific applications for contemporary situations by utilizing the general principle laid out in the original legal document. He explains: “Upon the jurist falls the burden of finding application from an ancient text like the eighteenth-century U.S. Constitution, for petitioners in the modern era. Likewise, upon the preacher is the onus of deriving application from the ancient text of Scripture for contemporary auditors of the sermon who have to struggle with real-life issues of their day.”³ To this point, Casillas adds:

“The Pentateuch is nowhere near the length of the legal codes and case studies that modern lawyers have to analyze. Yahweh chose not to give Israel this much detail. Instead, in keeping with ancient Near Eastern legal custom, He provided enough specifics in order to establish patterns that the Israelites could relate to any number of situations not discussed in the law. The term paradigmatic refers to this quality of Old Testament laws.”⁴

Each of the Ten Commandments required careful application to a variety of life circumstances not explicitly stated in the command itself.⁵ McQuilkin notes that God never meant for the specific applications listed in the Scripture to be exhaustive.

Thus, the nature of the Scripture demands application by modern pastors of the entire Bible to their congregation’s life circumstances.

The Teaching of the Bible on Application

Some contemporary pastors attempt to avoid direct application. They don’t succeed!⁶ They wisely fear holding God’s people to standards not warranted by God’s Word; they rightly want the congregation’s conscience to be bound to God; and, perhaps, they even wonder if God’s people are obliged to obey any specific applications.

Undoubtedly, we must exercise care in making applications, but the Word of God itself directs pastors to discover specific applications implicit in its timeless truths. Surely the command of 2 Timothy 4:2 to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort” justifies direct application of biblical principles to the lives of the modern listener.

“So then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is,” Paul instructs believers (Eph. 5:17). Believers who thoughtfully study their Bibles know what God’s moral will is for their lives. Yet Paul is doing more than simply encouraging them to read their Bibles. “Understanding what the will of the Lord is” speaks of the wise application of biblical principles to real life issues. Casillas correctly points out that “the apostle isn’t telling us simply to read our Bibles. He is charging us to ‘figure out’ God’s will by bringing biblical truth to bear on whatever issue we face, whether or not it is explicitly discussed in Scripture.”((Casillas, 85.)) The careful expositor asks, “How does God’s revealed will in this passage of Scripture flesh out in day-to-day life?”

The exhortation in Eph. 5:10 for believers to attempt to learn what is pleasing to the Lord communicates the same concept: any reader of Scripture must progress in discovering the unstated implications of God’s stated will. Therefore, while this text implies that correct application is not a perfect science (“trying to learn; testing to discover”). Correct interpretation and application is a skill that Christians must grow in if their choices are to bring God more joy.

Likewise, Paul’s prayer in Phil. 1:9–10 that “your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ,” assumes that believers can only have lives honoring to God if they test their choices against God’s revealed will. Paul is praying for their advancement in application—their progress in practical knowledge and discernment of how to apply the Scriptures to any situation.

Casillas uses the virtue lists of Gal. 5:22–23 and Eph. 4:2–3 to spotlight the necessity of thinking through relevant applications of general moral requirements, noting, “In each case above the reader must determine whether particular attitudes, responses, and behaviors in his own life reflect the ethical vision of the text. Typically this isn’t a complicated process, but it still requires going beyond the simple wording of the text.”⁷

2 Timothy 2:7 also compels the readers of Scripture, both its original recipients and future readers, to seek out the implications of the text. Paul writes, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Surely Paul meant more than, “Learn the principles I am teaching you, Timothy, and that will be enough.” Randy Leedy comments, “If I may put it this way, this passage says more than it says. Paul makes simple statements about a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. But when he goes on to say, ‘Think about this, and may the Lord help you understand,’ he makes clear that he means to communicate more than he actually says. Of course he could have gone on to explain exactly what he had in mind, but he did not. He left it up to Timothy first, and every reader since then, to infer not only the correct interpretation of these statements but also their application to his or her own life. He is not simply allowing Timothy to infer such application; his presentation requires it.”⁸

Thus, even the initial recipients of Scripture faced the task of applying the Bible’s general principles to their particular situations.

“Paul is calling Timothy to application, to figuring out the specific relevance of the illustrations for his life and ministry. And he presents two factors vital to application: meditation (‘think over what I say’) coupled with divine illumination (‘for the Lord will give you understanding in everything’). Even as the original recipient of this letter, Timothy had to sort through culturally oriented elements in order to arrive at God’s message for his life.” (See 2 Tim 2.7)⁹

Another statement of the necessity of application is found in 1 Tim. 1:10, when Paul, after listing several sins adds “and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.” Sinful choices are not limited to just those things listed in explicit declarations by Scripture. Other choices can be contrary to sound doctrine. The thoughtful expositor seeks to draw these out from the implications of the text. Leedy perceives that Paul’s “mode of presentation requires the reader to think about the character of the items listed and include in the list any other item of the same character. In other words, Paul not only allows, but expects the reader, as he encounters various circumstances in life, to expand the list to include items not mentioned.”¹⁰

Although centuries stand between modern believers and the original setting of Scripture, their responsibility to personalize its timeless truths to their life situations is comparable to the duty of the original recipients of the Bible. Throughout Church history, believers both near and far removed from the setting of the biblical text have labored to discover the implications of its timeless truths for the cultural landscape of their time.

The author of Hebrews challenges his readers to progress into spiritual maturity so that they will have “their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Spiritual maturity results from disciplined training of the conscience to differentiate between what is right and wrong. In other words, mature believers work hard to bring Scriptural principles to bear on the culture and values of their time—the process of direct application.

Michael Miller is the pastor of Foundation Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta. He published a form of this article in The Whetstone, the newsletter of the Western Canada Baptist Fellowship. We republish an edited version here by permission.

1. Ken Casillas, Beyond Chapter and Verse: The Theology and Practice of Application (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2018), 57–59. [↩]
2. Casillas, 137. [↩]
3. Abraham Kuruvilla, Privilege the Text: A Theological Hermeneutic for Preaching (Chicago: Moody, 2013), 143. [↩]
4. Casillas, 73. [↩]
5. See Casillas, 68–69. Robertson McQuilkin’s insights here are also helpful. See his Understanding and Applying the Bible. rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), 300. [↩]
6. They may assert that they leave application to the Holy Spirit. In reality, no pastor entirely can or does; nor should he try. [↩]
7. Casillas, 70. [↩]
8. Randy Leedy, Love Not the World: Winning the War against Worldliness (Greenville, SC: BJU Press, 2012), 93. [↩]
9. Casillas, 65. [↩]
10. Leedy, 92. [↩]