Scripture cannot be applied to anyone and everyone who reads it.

This is the most common error I see Christians making with scripture. I know I have. We read scripture, we love it, we love Jesus, we want to follow him and have his approval. But then after too long, we start haphazardly applying it to ourselves.

Hold up, wait a minute!

Do you know why that apostle or that prophet wrote that? do you know who he was writing to and why? Do you understand the magnitude of the difference between you and your little sermon hearing group and that first century ecclesia’s in that town about to be martyred, who that apostle was writing to? Most of the time there is no comparison at all, it is far too vast to even put to words.

Do you understand the extreme magnitude of what it means to be a Christian? How high and lofty and consequential it is to be a Christian?

If you don’t quite get what I am saying I dare say you should re-consider whether you should at all be applying scripture to yourself, …yet.

We perhaps can apply it to ourselves but ….we are not automatically qualified to apply scripture to ourselves because we want to.

Simply because we said a sinners prayer or because we go listen to sermons on Sunday in a building we call church. We may be on our way to that, but we also may not be. We may very well be far off track and listening to very confused people.

That verse you are rallying behind and applying to yourself and teaching others to do the same, why was it written? and what was the other side of the conversation of it?

How many of the sermons you give ear to are using that verse to proof-text what the man wants to say anyhow as a part of his Christianized self-help ministry? Would he say it without scripture anyhow? and is he just using the authority of scripture to endorse himself and his message?

It is ever so important to think about these things.

A good example of this about the famous Psalm 23 and concerning the subject of having enemies.

If I as an aggressive man alienate and am disagreeable and antagonize people in my life. Create little enemies for no reason other than my ego. Then I get mad at them for how they react to me and begin to consider them enemies. Then I read Psalm 23, and set out to apply it to myself out of misunderstanding of who the Psalmist wrote about when he wrote “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

Then in light of those enemies and our antagonism. Like a sibling rivalry gone bad, I begin to interpret all my successes with finances as God endorsing me and “preparing a table before me in the presence” of those people who I don’t like. And now who don’t like me for other reasons. Often times who are brothers or sisters in Christ who I just disagree with about petty things. I interpret things wrong, I am self serving and being obsessed and confused about what money means. I am actually abusing people who I should not consider an enemy anyhow.

The truth is Psalm 23 is Jesus Christ praying, and “the table” is being prepared by his father for him in the presence of his enemies. And it is not a financial table.

God is not now obliged to prepare table for every Christian who reads Psalm 23 and who wants approval. He is not on the hook to prepare table and upstage every Christian’s personal enemies. As a younger man there were times I felt like this was being done for me by God, it seemed that away, if you are inclined to look at things that way. But that does not necessarily mean he was doing that. It might have been coincidental, or perhaps I was just prosperous because I was working hard and was just fortunate, like so many non Christians who are flooded with wealth and success with money. And those “enemies” maybe I should not have been viewing as enemies anyhow.

To apply this verse and many others to every Christian who gets an enemy is silly. Or for me to apply all my personal prosperity and successes as God shaming my enemies is shortsighted and a bit self-centered. It is the prayer and hope of the inexperienced and the person who is impressed with his own success and who wants to spiritualize something that is not necessarily spiritual at all. How many ambitious and successful young ministers, preachers and wealthy rulers will be told by Jesus “get away from me …I never knew you”?

The important thing is to make sure we are not the enemy of Jesus in what we teach and how we live. It is not the domination of those who we perceive as enemies (which may be a big mistake). The better way is to bless our enemies if they are really enemies at all, not expect God to show them up for us or to privately rejoice if it seems like he is. Maybe they are our real friends indeed who are bold enough to disagree with us… such as fake friend would do.

By the way only Jesus Christ really deserves “the table prepared by the father, for him in the presence of his enemies.”

Read scripture as not your personal support book but as a complex witness to Jesus Christ. A book beyond us that is inspired and is there to usher us into the message and knowledge of Jesus Christ through the ages.

Don’t use it as your proof texting weapon of self service, which is so common anymore.