Jesus Cropped from the Picture

How Does it Apply to Me?

question, “How does this apply to me?” into an exercise that makes the reader the SUBJECT , not Christ. Regarding this what-does-it-say-to-you? approach, Webber said, “Often the interpretation of well-meant personal insights is regarded as authoritative simply because ‘it makes me feel good’ or ‘it gives me a lift.’” 41 While it is true that there are many practical applications for daily living, the Bible was given as the Story of God’s redemptive history, not as a user’s guide or owner’s manual. Such thinking trivializes the Scriptures and tempts the reader to skip over whole sections that “don’t apply to me.” For example, I have been in Bible studies on the book of Ephesians where participants were eager to skip chapters 1-3 in order to “get to the good stuff” in chapters 4-6 (where there are more practical applications). The drive for personal application can make Christians biblically illiterate. Whether they grow up in the church or not, the inability to explain the basic plot of the biblical drama and its lead character is now no different for churched teens than it is for unchurched young people. 42 I was a case in point. The Bible I studied in my high school days is a visual example of my bias for the most applicable parts of Scripture. I was taught to underline key verses that were especially helpful. Because the epistles were so “practical,” I ended up reading and underlining them most often. Eventually, all the pages from Romans to Jude fell out. While the Gospels and Proverbs are somewhat smudged, most of the Old Testament pages remain a clean ivory color, showing they were rarely read.

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