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Study To Show Yourself Approved. 5 of 11

Steven Findley
04/06/25 - Sunday AM Bible Study

Series: An Eleven Part Series Aimed At Developing And Increasing Bible "Study" Skills.

So you're talking about something like atonement.
If you understand what the New Testament says about atonement, that can be helpful, but
if you don't understand the Old Testament what it says about atonement, you don't understand
atonement.
Because a lot of what happens in the Old Testament is introducing the idea of sacrificial atonement
and the meaning of that and the significance of it, which is going to help you understand
what was the significance of Jesus and why did he even go to the cross to atonement for
our sins?
What does that mean?
If you don't have a Bible understanding of that context, you're going to be missing out
on what Jesus actually did.
So what I would say is if you know the New Testament without the Old Testament, you have
a black and white picture.
You can see all the things that are there, but you're not going to be able to appreciate
it as much as if you had the Old Testament context in there.
And the only way to get Testament and Bible level context is through consistent reading.
You're not going to sit down and do a Bible study and study everything from both testaments.
You have to read all of it.
Now here's kind of an interesting thing, before concordances and a lot of study aids that
we have today, like in the Restoration Movement, Alexander Campbell would take a topic and
he'd read every book that he could find written on the subject and read the whole Bible
looking for that in the Bible.
That's how he did it.
So we might do a concordant search everywhere, something is brought up.
He would just read the whole Bible, read every book that he could find written on the topic
and then draws conclusion from there to see what was said.
Unless you're investing in reading, you're basically planning on having a black and white
view of scripture.
Reading is important to do and you're basically surrending to that concept.
All right.
We've been going through this rules for understanding the scriptures handout.
We're on the back page and I won't spend a lot of time on this, but this is important.
We talked about a lot of different concepts in here, but I would say hang on to this particular thing.
You know, we talk about the rule of faith, criteria for canonicity, clear scriptures should
inform unclear scripture.
Now we're in the accurate handling of the text by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
Every fact is to be confirmed.
Now as we go through these things, if you don't, these are the essential tools to determine
doctrine from scripture.
So that's what we're dealing with here is doctrine is teaching that is accurate according
to the intention of the author and since discerning what was the intention of the author, what
was the intention of the inspired author in writing this down?
If you don't know how to go through, if you don't understand these things, you're going
to be hit and miss and your ability to understand the intention of the author.
And so a lot of times I feel like we might know these things kind of by instinct, but we're
putting words to things that we kind of know so we can have a process so we can understand
what am I doing?
What am I missing?
And so all these things as we've been going over the last couple of weeks are critically
important to Bible study and that's why I've been taking my time going through it.
But just again, it's just like I said is if you don't read your Bible regularly, plan
on having a black and white view of scripture.
If you don't know these processes, you don't have to memorize them.
They're kind of common sense, but if you don't recognize, okay, by the mouth of two or
three witnesses, every fact is we confirm that is such a critical Bible study tool.
Jesus said, if I alone testify about myself, my testimony isn't true.
So even Jesus said, if I say take my word for it and no one else vouches for me, then
you don't have to do what I say.
So that's pretty serious, isn't it?
So if you're going to say, I know this doctrine based on this one verse and this one guy
said it, is that doctrine?
But you know, how many times have you heard, you know, okay, well, we played devil's advocate
last week, right?
I mentioned that live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God.
What about that?
Can't we make doctrine based on a word?
No, we can't, because words don't complete a thought.
A sentence completes a thought, a paragraph really completes a statement, and it's the
statements of God that have meaning, not the individual words.
And so even in that, you know, logically say, okay, we can't work that way.
We have to have it, and God is a God of justice, and when God says, here's how you make
a legally binding case, it's by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
You know, apostles, prophets, Jesus, other inspired writers, we've got to be able to reproduce
it in scripture consistently.
So you might find, there's all sorts of scriptures in the Bible that like, for instance, if you
read through the book of Job, Job is basically a book of false doctrine, right?
Job's friends to get it wrong, Job gets it wrong, everybody gets it wrong, and then God
corrects them kind of.
And so, but if you just decided, I'm going to go with the, with the verse and Job, and
I'm going to just, I'm going to determine a doctrine based on a verse and Job, is that
helpful to anybody?
It's in the Bible, yeah, you know, you, and there's all sorts of verses like that.
What about being baptized for the dead?
There's one verse in the Bible that talks about that.
Can we make a doctrine based on that?
Can we demand that people in order to be saved must get baptized for their dead ancestors
or whatever?
No, because there's not, with no witness testimony to it, so that's really important.
All these things are important.
If we want to establish, if we want credible teaching, this is the process to make incredible
teaching.
You know, we might say something like, well, here's what the Bible means to me.
Well, that may or may not be true, based on if you have the support for that meaning.
And so, if you just read a section of the Bible and say, well, maybe it's talking about
this or maybe it's talking about this, well, it means this to me, it means this to me.
It's only if you have, you know, people who have a depth of knowledge who've studied
scripture and kind of understand, because I'm not saying you have to memorize scripture,
you have to, you have to at least intuitively know scripture, and that comes from familiarity.
And you can say, I think this is what it means, but we can, we'd have to work through to
prove it, you have a process to go through.
All right.
On the backside of study, study, show yourself approved, it says, don't adopt or teach
as doctrine, only using one obscure passage or the interpretation of your interpretation
of a single Greek word.
So this is really important.
One passage and one Greek word does not change the meaning of a doctrine.
Now there might be a dot, something that has a lot of passages you could cite, but then
it's like this one passage has this one word, and if the word means this, then this way
we go with the doctrine.
And if the word means this other thing, then this way we go with the doctrine.
And if people disagree over what it means, where are you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you just change yourself.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
Well, no, this is in the, this tense of Greek, though it's nominative and the nominative
can mean this is, like I've heard that over and over, especially if you listen or read
debates, that is a common thing that people will do is they'll get down into this wrangling
about word thing.
I want to read a scripture here, and I just want to, there are several scriptures that
say this, but let's see here, first Timothy 6, verse 3, Paul repeats this to Timothy multiple
times, but we'll just, we'll just read what he says.
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to Godless, he is conceded
and understands nothing.
So, first thing is, sound doctrine agrees with the words of Jesus Christ.
So we have a standard now.
Now what are the words of Jesus Christ?
Are they just the red ones that we find in our Bible?
What are they?
Mason, what are the words of Jesus Christ?
Just the red ones?
No.
What are they?
The whole Bible.
Yeah, that, because the apostles spoke what Jesus told them to speak, inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I think 216, we have the mind of Christ.
So Paul says that he is teaching the mind of Christ in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
Both books, Paul says, the things I'm giving you are not the words of men, but the words
of God, and you're responsible to listen to them as the words of God.
You can go through and find, but the point is, is, Paul tells Timothy, if you're bringing
words that don't agree with the words of Jesus, then those are not sound teachings.
Look in verse 4.
He is conceded and understands nothing.
So bad attitude, right, is, okay, I don't have to agree with Christ.
As long as I can make the Scripture say what I want it to say and make an argument about
it, then that's good enough.
Paul, no, that's not good enough.
He is conceded and understands nothing.
He has a morbid interest in controversial questions, disputes about words out of which
arise, envy and strife and abusive language, evil suspicions, constant friction between
men of depraved mind and depraved, deprived of the truth, who suppose that Godliness is
a means of gain.
So here you just see it's a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes
about words.
Why is a question controversial?
Not everybody agrees, okay, why are we disputing about words?
Because everybody doesn't agree, that's why.
See the thing is, is we're not going with establishable facts, we're going with things
that require inference.
So here's our rules regarding this.
I could go through some other things, but wrangling about words is really the deal, the meaning
of grammar, doctrine does not hang on the meaning of a word or the interpretation of
a word.
We don't establish doctrine based on that.
And sometimes what that means is we got to say we can't really make a clear answer and
we have two brethren, both faithful, both reading the same Bible, and one falls on this
side of the line and one falls on this side of the line.
Do I get to condemn him as a false teacher and he's leading people to hell and fire and
brimstone, what would James and John do kind of a thing?
No, I don't, because it's unclear.
With reality is, if there are things like that in the Bible, either we're not understanding
something God gave us or God left something without a, with a unclear answer, it kind of falls
in a grazo.
That's just the way it is sometimes, there's an areas of judgment in the Bible, and I would
say those kind of fall into that from time to time.
So if there are two meanings, you must have clear biblical reasons for choosing one over
the other.
So this could mean one of two things.
It could either mean, it could mean, go to the left or go to the right.
Let's just make it, I don't want to use an example.
There could be two meanings, which one do I choose?
How do I choose?
Choose the one that has the most support of the Scripture.
Yeah, the one that you can build if scriptural precedent for.
And so sometimes you say, okay, well we can't discern the Bible just saying, take a direction.
So now we got to infer something.
All right.
So here's maybe, yeah, so we got to infer something, meaning I got to draw a conclusion based
on what I see, not based on what it says, which means I'm saying something the Bible didn't
say, but alluded to.
Well, how do I make a decision on that?
Well, which one aligns with the context of the whole Bible better?
Right?
The sum of thy word is truth.
And so if you can say, okay, well, God said to do this here in the law of Moses, so
there's some support.
And I can see an example here of something like this, and this is the direction they went
with it.
And also, I can see this being kind of a commonly accepted approach that doesn't prove it still.
But what that does is put the weight of precedence on the side of the decision you're making.
And there are some things where you can go both ways with it and you got to make a judgment.
And there are some things where the precedent falls on one side and it's pretty clear, even
though it's an inference, and yet not everybody can see that.
They don't want to, haven't heard of that way, whatever it is.
And so we got to be careful on those things.
If there are two meanings though, you must, I'm not saying you probably should, not saying
it would be a good idea to.
You must have a clear biblical reason for choosing one over the other.
Your preferred understanding of the word does not prove anything.
Second Peter, 1, 22, 21, scripture is not a matter of one's own personal interpretation.
I don't care what you've been told.
I don't care what somebody you trust taught you.
I don't care what conclusion you drew when you read it.
It none of that matters.
Your preferred understanding doesn't prove a thing unless you can say, here's the reason
I've chosen path A over path B.
Here are the scriptures.
Here's how I understand those scriptures.
Here's the support.
Here are my witnesses that would testify to turn in one direction or the other.
Unless you can establish that, you don't have a case to make.
Now, how many of us have that for everything we believe is strong-wing?
That's important to be willing to consider the evidence of new, especially, even if
there's a lot of times when I teach, here's a lot of times my goal.
I don't expect you to memorize everything I say, surprisingly enough.
To my own fault sometimes, I have to look back at my notes to see what I preached last
week.
If I have to do that from time to time, what do you suppose I should expect of you?
I have a lot more interaction with that text than you did, and I still have to remind
myself.
So, you're not going to remember everything I say, but while I'm saying it, what I expect
you to do is to be able to listen and follow along and connect the dots with me and say,
I saw how that connection was made.
And I know where I can go find that out again if I need to, so you can have a position.
And you might believe that position, and you're like, I know I saw it, but I can't reproduce
it for myself.
There's no problem in getting help reproducing it, but a lot of what we believe is like that.
I remember when I was young, and I went through, I listened to a low Williams class about
authority, and I started going through using the tools I learned on that authority class
and saying, okay, why do we take the Lord's Supper Sunday night?
Why do we have a Sunday night service?
Why do we serve the Lord's Supper the way we do?
Why do we pray?
Why do we have song leaders?
Like, I went through and with the scripture, because I just knew what we did, I didn't
know why we did it.
So I was excited when I figured out how to solve the problem for myself, and so I
you go through, and you realize how many things, how many problems have I not solved, because
it was like, after doing that, it was like a few years down the road before I even considered
certain things, and how we're going to deal with it.
But you might have an opinion, you might know what tradition is, and you might people
you trusted may have told you, but we got to remember, the truth comes from scripture,
and we got to study that out, we got to, you know, until you go, you are able to reproduce,
they don't have such a strong opinion that you are like, acting unbecoming to other people.
Like, just realize this is where we stand, and a lot of times, even something I've studied,
I talked to minor prophets like three years ago, and I had like, a lot of the stuff in
there memorized, even the order, and now I have no clue, like I feel like I have to go
through and look at my highlights to know, and it's like, not no clue, but a lot less
of a clue than I had right after I taught it, and that's how things go, Bruce.
Well, and what I found is, as time goes on, read that as you get older, the scriptures
have, you have a broader understanding of a passage in the scripture, they have a different
impact on you than they did 40 years ago, when you were just starting out.
And so, I think part of this major aging process is, you become more familiar, and this
is a greater appreciation for the scriptures, because they have a different impact on the
future.
Yeah, the scriptures, like, when you're young, you can be really opinionated, I was.
And that's okay, but as you mature and you get wiser, the scripture has room for you
to broaden your understanding based on knowledge, and wisdom, and a little bit more less naivety
and all that stuff, you realize, okay, I was being really hard on something that probably
wasn't as firm as I thought it was, or I was being soft on something that is a little
harder than I thought it was, and so that's what age will do, and so yeah, just be ready
to adjust and to shift and to grow, and go through this process when you can.
So your preferred understanding doesn't prove a thing, don't prefer your understanding
over a consensus of scholars unless you have a very good reason.
Some people say, well, here's my conclusion, well, why did you draw that conclusion?
Well, I have all my reasons, lined up in a row, and then you say, can you find anybody
else who drew that conclusion?
That's always my test, can I find anybody else who drew that conclusion?
If I can't, or if the people who draw my conclusion have my same proclivities, like whatever doctrine
I'm supporting with that conclusion, or whatever, if they kind of believe with me and so they
draw that conclusion, but it's not a commonly held conclusion, and I say scholars, not teachers
a lot of times, because scholars basically, their reputation hangs on accurate translation.
So you know, we got to, but if you can't find scholars, that doesn't mean you're wrong.
A lot of times the scholars, they're drawing wrong conclusions as well, but you got to have
a good reason.
You can't just be like, yeah, basically nobody understands it this way, but me, but I'm
right.
You know, and I'll look on the left column of your page, where there's no guidance to
people fall, but in abundance of counselors, there is victory.
A lot of times, commentators and scholars, I call those my counselors, right?
They're not always going to be right.
I might have to deviate from what they say, but with an abundance of counselors, there's
victory.
You're going to have a broader perspective.
Look at Proverbs 15, 23, 2.
Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors, they succeed.
So there again, same concept is to have counselors, at least other preachers who are people
who are disciplined in their study to help you walk through that stuff.
1st Thessalonians 5.21, examine everything carefully, hold fast to that, which is good.
So those scriptures all kind of speak to this.
So don't prefer your own understanding over consensus of scholars without a very good
reason.
If a passage, oh, here's another one, I don't have it on here, but don't prefer your translation
of a word over the scholars without a very, very good reason.
You hear this a lot.
This is kind of a common thing that preachers will do, that I try to avoid.
But preachers will say, this is the word they use, but they got it wrong.
And here's the thing.
Like it's good, okay.
My process for this, I read it in the American standard, because that's my go to.
The word is unclear, I did it just this morning, I can't remember if it was for my sermon
or this class, but you find a word, and then you say, okay, what does that word mean?
And so you start go through, okay, ESV, New King James, Alexa English translation.
So you go through several translations that are, some are word for word, some are more
thought for thought, but you kind of go through, say, and what I find is, if there's a variety
of words used in the same spot, then likely the Greek word is unclear.
And then it's worthwhile looking at the Greek word.
But if you see consistency through most translations, this word is used, then basically the scholars
over a spectrum are saying, here's how to understand this Greek word.
Now I might look at it, and I might say, I think it could also mean this.
Okay, why do you think it could also mean this?
Well, because Alexa, can I read said that?
Then why did all the Greek scholars who put their reputation on the line to give an
accurate translation of the Bible choose something different than you?
Could you argue with them about it?
My answer, no, I can't.
And there's mistakes we make like, what's a butterfly?
Is a butterfly, a flying dairy product.
But sometimes we'll look at a compound Greek word and we'll interpret it that way.
See, it's butter, that's the Greek word for butter, and that's the Greek word for fly.
So this is a flying dairy product, no, that's not how language works, right?
You got to understand what the Greek meaning of the Greek word means in context and in
their vernacular.
And the same thing with our words, they don't always make sense if you break them down.
But that's like the common error people make when they're trying to translate from the
Greek.
So just be very careful with it.
Don't prefer your translation over other things.
Okay, next, if a passage requires an inference, a logical conclusion, the use of the same rules
use the same rules as a previous point.
So I'll give an example, this one can be controversial.
So let me read it because my memorization is not exact on this.
This is about Jesus talking about divorces, and I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
except for immorality, and Mary's another woman commits adultery.
Okay, there's some things that are clear, some things that are unclear.
You have this word except in there.
What does the except mean?
Here's the situation, and now here's the except.
Anything you tell me that except means you are inferring.
You're drawing a conclusion, however you read it, however you translate it, you're drawing
a conclusion based on the word except.
So if it says don't do this, except in this situation, you saying, okay, I know the situation
except fornication, that's what Jesus said.
Now what is Jesus telling you to do in the case of fornication?
Okay, well, this person can remarry, this person can't remarry, both these people can
remarry, neither of them can remarry, that's pretty much your three options.
But anything you say what you're doing is you are drawing a logical conclusion.
You're inferring.
And if you're going to make an inference, you have to be able to support your inference
from other passages in the Bible because it is your conclusion.
That's the reason why the marriage divorce and remarriage thing is so controversial.
It's because you have to add words that the Bible didn't add in order for that except
to have any meaning.
You're adding them in.
Whatever you decide, you've added them, the Bible didn't.
It might be logical.
But if you're drawing an inference, and this is true of any except, but this is the one
that's readily available in my mind, it's true of any except, if the Bible says except
and doesn't define the words that go with the except, you have to add them in.
And if you're adding them in, then you have to have a secondary support structure, and
you always have to recognize, I inferred that, the Bible didn't say it.
And so if you're going to infer something in order to hold it as doctrine, you'd have
to be able to support it with mouth of two or three witnesses and all these extra things.
But then also, you have to realize, okay, I inferred that.
So if a passage requires an inference, the use of the same rules, you have to support
that inference.
You don't just get to choose and say, that's the one.
You have to have biblical support and a logical progression.
And if you can't build that, then you can't demand it of others, right?
And people draw different conclusions.
And that's why, like I read a book, it was called Four Views on Marriage, Divorce and Remerage.
And the Four Views are, Never Divorce, Never Remery, Divorce and Never Remery, Divorce
and only one person can remarry, and then divorce and both can remarry.
So there's like a whole spectrum in there.
Why Four Views?
Why all those Four Views?
And then all the little iterations of those Four Views.
People draw different inferences.
Yeah, you know, the never divorce, never remarry people and the divorce, never remarry people.
You know why they draw that conclusion?
Because they acknowledge we don't know what that inference means.
That's why.
That's why they take that position.
It's like, since the Bible doesn't say the words, any words we add there are man's words
and we don't know if they're true or not.
We're just taking a guess.
That's at least an honest answer, even though it doesn't accept, also means something.
But so I disagree with them on that.
That's why there's so many positions because there's just an inference.
Any inference you're going to put, you have to be able to support.
And in, if you have a lack of ability to be able to support that,
then you can't call it sound doctrine.
It might be doctrinal, but it may not, you would have a problem with that.
So that's the challenge to all that stuff.
And that's why people disagree.
All right, we've got a few minutes left here.
Let's turn now.
I gave you a homework assignment a couple weeks ago.
I don't know if you've done it or not, but we'll have time through this next week.
So first page here, how to study a Bible passage of 17 questions.
And just go through this other page, which is just the text of John or James 2 1 through 13.
And do this exercise on this passage.
I took out all the verses, the verse numbers,
so you don't have the mental distractions.
And after I've studied it, and even as I was preparing to teach,
I was just using the one I made.
On the back of the sheet, this is my, I answered these questions,
and this is the answer, this is what I came up with.
That's why I put it there is just so you can kind of see if you go through this process
and kind of come up with a marking system and what it's going to look like.
This is what you're going to get.
So, and if you look on the top, you can't, they got cut off,
but if you can decipher 01, that's question 1.
And that's my way of marking question 1.
So you can look through there.
And on the right hand, it says 08, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17,
I didn't answer those questions because they weren't pertinent to this text.
So that's where we're at.
Do it this week if you didn't do it.
This is, I'm a positive quick.
Teams, this is your homework assignment.
So, this is, so the teams are at ours and they, I don't give the adults homework assignments.
I just strongly encourage you to do it, but the teams I can tell them what to do.
So, that's your homework assignment.
Go through and mark it up, and you can use my example,
but just, and at least follow along and kind of see what happened here.
So, I want to look at this.
I want to spend some time doing observation on James, chapter 2, 1 through 13,
because this is a good passage for studying.
And so, this is what my page is going to look like.
So, you just see all the marks everywhere on it.
That's what it looks like.
So, let's go ahead and start real quick.
This passage, so let me, let's start here.
I'm going to break down a little, but I don't have a lot of time.
So, we'll just, we'll start by pulling out what is James saying?
Because that's our main goal, right?
What is he saying?
So, the first step in what that I would want to,
you go through this process, you identify all the different elements of it.
So, now you're familiar with the text.
And so, we can see things, like for instance here, notice this pink 4,
right here, we'll do it again.
So, that 4, that conjunction, what it means is, as you can see is,
an illustration is beginning.
So, the illustration helps to make the point that James is making,
but what I would say is, all right, let's cut out the illustrations.
Those are the mnemonic tools, and that doesn't,
that isn't helping us with the interpretation yet.
So, you see right over here, illustration ends.
And so, he goes on to say something, and we look down again,
right here, another illustration, and it comes all the way over to here.
So, what we get is, if we just pull those out,
because they're just proving the point he already said,
here's what we see in the text.
This is the first section, 4 if, right here.
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ
with an attitude of personal favoritism.
Here's his teaching, right?
Here's the point he's trying to make.
Don't hold your faith with an attitude of personal favoritism.
So, that's helpful.
And then we scroll down here, a little bit further down,
we see where's our illustration end, right here, if, however.
So, it says, if, however, you're fulfilling the royal law,
according to the scripture,
you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well.
But if you show partiality, you're committing sin
and convicted by the law as a transgressor.
So, there's our second teaching point,
and then he goes on to illustrate it.
And at the end, it says, right here,
the end of the illustration, so speak,
and so act as those who are being judged by the law of liberty.
So, there's his teaching.
And so, let's go through and read that together.
And what this does is it cuts a lot of the,
maybe what you could call the fluff.
This gets us down to the meat of the scripture.
So, okay, you say, an illustration is a teaching tool.
It's going to help us understand it,
but if we want to say, what is James talking about?
A good way to do that.
Just let's cut out the illustration.
Let's cut out the things that describe and explain
and get down to what is he actually saying in an imperative tone.
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ
with an attitude of personal favoritism.
If, however, you're fulfilling the royal law
according to the scripture,
you love your neighbors yourself, you're doing well.
So, if you notice that contrast there, don't be partial,
but if you love your neighbors yourself, then you're doing well.
But if you show partiality, you're committing sin.
So, there again, you kind of have a repeat of that.
And then he says, so speak until act as those
who are being judged by the law of liberty,
and what that means is don't be partial.
So, that's as we look at that, you know,
what we can see is, here's what he's teaching us.
Don't be partial.
So, that is what is being taught.
So, you got who, what, where, when, why,
how, the what is, don't be partial.
And here's how our system helps us to identify that.
Notice our word right here, personal favoritism.
I circled in in blue.
If you look in your sheet, you can see it.
And then I drew lines from there,
which, it's hard to get them, you know,
to see the lines, because they're a little bit blended,
but it works.
So, you follow this blue line here, come down here.
Personal favoritism is the same as making distinctions.
Same thing, right, you're making judgments about people.
You follow this other line down,
and you see, he's talking about partiality.
So, you see a consistent theme showing up through here.
It's okay.
What is personal favoritism?
It's making distinctions, and it's being partial.
And so, why, what, on what basis are you making distinctions?
Yeah, and it says right here, I have an attitude.
Right, I have an attitude, a personal favoritism.
So, I have this attitude.
What does this attitude lead to?
Well, it's leading to, you know,
I'm making decisions based on an internal motive,
an attitude.
So, evil motives.
And then if you, so if you go from,
so that kind of helps us out,
is why are you doing it?
Because your attitude is simple, it's evil.
And so, you can go through and you can find that.
So, as we go through and we mark this out,
that's what it's gonna help you to be able to do.
So, your ambivalent would say, well,
how is personal favoritism fit into what he's saying?
Well, personal favoritism, partiality,
and then also making distinctions.
Those are all this similar concept.
And so, let's link them together.
And that's, we can see how he's using that
and bringing that up.
Is that help, is that making sense?
So, that's how this key helps us.
Here's another one that's useful,
and I'll just kind of show you.
Notice our, so there's a pink highlight
with a purple line.
So, notice this, a pink highlight.
God chose, we follow the line,
and then it says, but you have dishonored.
Notice that contrast.
God chose, but you have dishonored.
If you're trying to say, well, what's my partiality cost?
What's this being judging with evil motive?
What does that do?
Causes me to act in a different way than God acted.
So, that contrast that James draws out helps us to see,
here's what God's doing, here's what you're doing.
You see how that's different?
And if you're doing something different than God,
it's not good.
So, what my point is here, we'll start going through this
and we'll break it down a little bit.
We'll read through it together and we'll all work on it.
But I'm just trying to show you, as you go through
and you do this, what you can do is you can start discovering,
well, what's contrasting?
And it says, here's another one.
Someone comes in, dressed in fine clothes.
Someone comes in, dressed in dirty clothes.
That's a contrast, right?
There's these two different people.
We're contrasting them.
And you pay special attention to the one,
and then you, so the cause is, right here,
the cause, dressed in fine clothes,
the effect is, sit here in a good place.
So you're going through, you say, okay,
let's identify the cause and effect.
The cause is, nice clothes, the effect is, sit in a good place.
The cause here, poor man and dirty clothes.
And so the, the effect of the poor man and dirty clothes
is, sit by my foot still.
Why am I making that decision?
Because I'm looking at them and I'm judging them
based on their outward appearance.
So you can go through and you can say, okay,
well, what are the causes and effects in all of this?
And I tried to link those with an orange line
if you can find it.
Some of them are not as clear.
But, you know, we just go through and you can find your contrast,
find these key, teaching things, and then,
if you say, so let's say we identify,
see this green line, that's my,
I don't think that was on the list,
but I added that in this.
This is the key teaching thing.
Don't regard your faith and our glorious Lord
with an attitude of personal favoritism.
And then he illustrates that point.
Well, what points he illustrates?
This thing.
Don't regard with personal favoritism.
Now, here's an example of personal favoritism.
Look right here.
We'll make that, does that make a bigger up there?
Yeah.
For if, when you say, if, is that something that did happen
or is that something that could happen?
What do you think?
Good.
So if it's something that could happen,
and he didn't say for when, right?
So the meaning of that word tells us what's coming up next.
So if he says for if that means the next thing
is hypothetical, it's not real, it's an example.
And that's how we know it's an example.
Is you identify, okay, here's the conjunction for,
this word if gives us the concept.
So that's why paying attention to me familiar
with the text helps us to discern this out.
So that's what we'll work on next week
is this observation of the text,
but I just wanna give you a sense of this is helpful stuff
in which we can see why.
And so we'll just walk through this and study this out
and what you get, what we'll discover.
Now I'm not gonna tell you, we'll discover it together,
but we'll draw out some meaning from this,
which is really a helpful thing.
So any thoughts, questions, comments or anything?
Okay, let's go ahead and close with a word of prayer.