What should our attitude be when reading Scripture?

Every time we open the Bible to read, we should check our attitudes.

We should approach the Scriptures with a hunger to seek the truth. We should have only one goal, and that is to know the truth in the way God intended to communicate to us.

Our prayer should be, "Father, I hunger to know the truth of your Word. I do not bring my own prejudices, my denominational traditions, the teachings of men or my own doctrinal leanings with me when I read your Word. I bring a humble heart, and a teachable spirit, so that You might teach me Your Word as it is intended to be understood. If you show me something that does not fit in with the doctrine I've been taught, I will examine Your Word carefully and seek to know your truth. Amen."

It's that simple. Our desire should only be to know God's truth as God intends! Not for our own convenience or liking.

Here're some things to watch out for, and not do when we read the Scriptures.

We must not read the Scriptures with the intention to find proof to justify our own previously held views. We should be humble and teachable, and be willing to change our views if the Bible shows us that we're wrong.
The danger of looking into Scripture just to justify our views, with no desire for correction or giving room that we may be wrong, will in the worst cases, lead to apostasy and heresy.

In this way, homosexuals can even justify themselves with Scripture, and believe themselves saved! The Ku Klux Klan can also justify themselves with Scripture and believe that their racism is Biblical! This is taking it to the extreme, but it just shows us what kind of dangers lie ahead when we're not careful with this.

On a lesser note, some denominations refuse to read "wine" in the New Testament as wine but insist that wine is grape juice. I think if Jesus turned water into grape juice, the Bible would have told us so. History proves them wrong (the practice of watering down wine with water was not a Hebrew tradition but a Roman one) but will they change their views? This is a minor point that I feel isn't really very important in the big scheme of things, but it shows what can come about when we put on our prejudices when reading Scripture.

We must never take a verse out of context, and then claim it as a promise from God.
In all things, we have to know what the entire Bible says about a particular issue, in order to have a complete picture.

I'm sure everyone knows about the story of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man touched a different part of the elepant and formed their own conclusions about what an elephant looks like. One touched the tail and said an elepant is like a snake. Another touched his legs and said an elepant is like a tree trunk. Another touched his trunk and said it was thick like a python but very dextrous. Or something like that, you get the picture.

They were all right in a small way but totally and competely wrong in the big picture.

Let's take prayer for example.

Matthew 7:7-8 says:
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Some people claim this verse alone, and believe that they could do anything they pleased, lived a sinful life, asked out of the will of God and still claim this promise that as long as they ask, God will answer. Then blame God for not answering.

Now what's wrong with the picture? It's the same thing the blind men were doing with the elephant. We're not seeing the whole picture.

What does the rest of the Bible say about prayer?

1 Kings 8:35
35 "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

It is clear that God will not hear our prayers when we sin, and are unrepentant.

Psalm 66:18
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;

Again, God will not hear us if we regard iniquity in our hearts.

1 Chronicles 5:20
20 They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

We must trust fully in the Lord when we pray. These men trusted the Lord with their lives.

2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

- humble themselves
- turn from their wicked ways

Job 16:17
17 yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

Proverbs 15:8
The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.

Proverbs 15:29
The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 28:9
If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

Isaiah 1:13-17
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

1 Peter 3:7
7Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

If we husbands do not treat our wives with respect, God will also not hear us when we pray.

If we look at how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, we see something else. The priority in prayer is firstly the glory of God, not our needs be met. (I'll write more on this another time). The order and priority given in the Lord's prayer is clear.

1. God's glory and name
2. God's kingdom
3. God's will
4. Our requests

In that order.

If we understand this, we will not pray for something for ourselves that will cause unbelievers to profane or blaspheme God's name, or hinder the advance of his kingdom, or go against His will. God won't hear us anyway.

Third and last point. We must know the entire context under which certain verses are quoted. We should ask ourselves, who is the speaker speaking to? Is he addressing a particular group of people only (e.g. the apostles) or is the speaker addressing all believers?

Take for example this verse in Revelations 3:20 -
20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

I guess this is where "Would you like to invite Jesus into your heart?" comes from. However, what is the context under which this verse was spoken? If we were to ask believers, I believe many of them would say the context is Jesus's invitation to salvation.

However if we were to read the entire chapter carefully, we would find that Jesus was actually addressing this to the church in Laodicea, and he was rebuking them for being lukewarm.

Thus the entire meaning is taken out of context if we do not read the verse in context, and many misunderstandings come out of this.