Reading the Bible Forward

Reading the Bible Forward: The Difference Between Speculation and Stewardship

In the opening verses of 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul addresses a critical issue facing the early church—one that remains equally threatening to believers today. He warns against those who "devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith" (1 Timothy 1:4).
Two words stand out: speculations and stewardship. Understanding the distinction between these approaches to Scripture can transform how we read, interpret, and apply God's Word.

The Heart of the Matter

Paul's concern wasn't merely academic. The Ephesian church faced teachers who were introducing confusion and disunity through their interpretations of Scripture. They claimed divine authority for their teachings, yet they were leading people away from the clear meaning of God's Word into endless debates and uncertain conclusions.
This same danger persists in our churches today. Well-meaning teachers can inadvertently promote speculations by imposing later theological systems onto earlier biblical texts, reading meanings into passages that the original authors never intended, or discovering "deeper" meanings that somehow eluded every biblical writer who came after.

The Question of Authorship

The Bible is unique among all documents—it has dual authorship. God breathed out His Word, yet He chose to do so through human authors who wrote in specific historical contexts, using normal rules of grammar and language. This raises an important question: whose intent should we prioritize—the human author's or the divine Author's?
The answer is both simpler and more profound than we might expect: since God chose to communicate His revealed will through human authors, the human author's meaning is the divine Author's meaning. We cannot separate the two. God didn't whisper secret meanings into the text that contradict or transcend what the human authors actually wrote.

Reading the Bible Forward, Not Backward

God gave us Scripture progressively over time. Genesis came before Revelation. The Old Testament preceded the New Testament. This progressive revelation matters deeply for interpretation.

Here's a crucial principle: a biblical author cannot be informed by what was written after he wrote, but he can be informed by what was written before he wrote. Moses, who wrote Genesis, had no access to the book of Revelation because John wouldn't write it for thousands of years. We cannot use Revelation to determine what Moses meant when he penned the creation account.

This means we must read the Bible forward, respecting the historical development of God's revelation. Good stewards of God's Word initially limit their interpretations to what the biblical author knew and could have intended at the time of writing. Only after establishing that foundation can we trace how later revelation builds upon earlier texts.

The Danger of Theological Grids

Speculations often creep in when we interpret the Bible backward, imposing our preferred theological systems—whether Calvinism, Arminianism, or various millennial views—onto texts written long before those systems existed. This slightly flawed approach makes the biblical text serve our theology rather than allowing Scripture to shape our theology.

When we impose later revelation or theological frameworks onto earlier texts, we risk making words mean something they don't mean and violating the historical context God chose for His revelation. We essentially put words in God's mouth that He never spoke.

A Practical Example: Boaz and Christ

Consider the book of Ruth. Many teachers present Boaz as a "type" of Christ, drawing numerous parallels: both from Judah's tribe, both connected to Bethlehem, both redeemers, both welcoming to outsiders, both demonstrating extraordinary kindness. The connections seem too numerous to be coincidental.

Yet here's the critical question: Is this what the author of Ruth intended to convey? If so, why didn't any New Testament author make this connection explicit?

The book of Ruth ends with a genealogy showing that Boaz was King David's great-great-grandfather. That's the author's clear intent—to demonstrate how God providentially arranged the lineage of Israel's greatest human king. This is the single truth the author emphasized through the book's structure and conclusion.

Now, can we connect this to Christ? Absolutely—but only because New Testament authors did so first. Matthew traces David's lineage to Jesus. Peter proclaimed that one greater than David had been exalted to God's right hand. These explicit New Testament connections give us solid ground to stand on.

The proper approach is to first emphasize what the author of Ruth emphasized—God's providential role in bringing King David to power. Then, following the New Testament's lead, we can make what Charles Spurgeon called "a beeline to the cross," showing how this ultimately points to Christ.

The Cost of Speculation

When we've become frustrated because someone took our words out of context, we've experienced a taste of what we do to biblical authors when we speculate beyond their intended meaning. We should offer them the same courtesy we expect from others—taking their words as they meant them, not as we want them to mean.
The stakes are high. Speculation creates "seed beds for tomorrow's heresies." History demonstrates this truth. Many false teachings began with seemingly small departures from the biblical authors' clear intent, eventually snowballing into doctrines that contradicted the gospel itself.

Faithful Stewardship

Paul called Timothy to promote "the stewardship from God that is by faith." Faithful stewardship means:

• Respecting the historical context in which each book was written
• Honoring normal grammatical rules and literary structure
• Limiting interpretations to what the biblical author knew and intended
• Following the New Testament's lead in connecting Old Testament passages to Christ
• Being humble enough to admit we don't have the same interpretive authority as the apostles

This doesn't mean we can't preach Christ from the Old Testament. It means we do so responsibly, following the connections the New Testament authors made rather than inventing our own.

The Path Forward

The distinction between speculation and stewardship matters because God's Word deserves to be handled with integrity. When we speculate, we inadvertently shift authority from God's written Word to our own insights and connections. We risk declaring in God's name what God never declared Himself.

But when we steward God's Word faithfully, we preserve the uniqueness of each biblical author's message while still showing how all Scripture ultimately points to Christ. We read the Bible forward, allowing God's progressive revelation to unfold as He intended.
The question before us is simple: Will we promote speculations or practice stewardship? The health of the church depends on our answer.