The Sense of Scripture: Studies in Interpretation . . .

UNDERSTANDING DISTANCE 

If we settled on a single principle of interpretation, one that would make a big difference in our relation to Scripture, we could hardly do better than to adopt the one emphasized by Alexander Campbell: We must come within understanding distance. Just as there is a hearing distance, says Campbell, there is an understanding distance. He is saying that however much we may otherwise be prepared to study the Bible our effort will be in vain if in our hearts and minds we stand beyond hearing and understanding distance. We must want to hear and understand.

When I recently spoke of this rule to one of our New Testament scholars, he was amazed that Mr. Campbell was so "modern" in his hermeneutics. In scholarly circles these days, he said, the emphasis is on "coming within understanding distance of the text." This is not the only instance in which Campbell anticipated modern scholarship. Not only did he provide his generation with a modern version of the New Testament, but he clearly distinguished between the kerugma (preach-mg) and the didache (teaching), anticipating by a hundred years C. H. Dodd, the British scholar who championed this position a generation ago. In such places as his "Sermon on the Law" Campbell also distinguished between the systems of the Old Testament and the New Testament, noting their appropriate applications. That was revolutionary in his day.

The rule of "understanding distance" is rooted in Scripture, which again and again enjoins, "Let him who hears understand." We may not understand when we hear because we do not hear aright, or we may not understand even when we hear aright because we do not want to understand. To understand is a matter of will -"Let him who hears understand," is thus addressed to man's will. It is a matter of getting one's "want-to" fixed. How often do we refuse to hear, or to understand when we do hear, because we don't want to be disturbed? Truth stings like an adder and cuts like a sword. Truth may make us free, as our Lord teaches, but freedom can be a painful experience. To come within understanding distance can be risky, a threat to one's ego, pride, self-esteem and even security itself.

If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know the "teaching," says the Lord in Jn. 17:7, which is an invitation to come within understanding distance. It shows how strongly Jesus believed in the freedom of the will. He was no determinist. Man is not driven by forces from within and from without that are beyond his control. He can will to do good or to do evil. He is in an important sense the captain of his own soul. He has will power, not simply a will. The man who wrote the book Do Yourself A Favor, Love Your Wife has Jesus on his side. Most of life's blessings (and curses) are closely related to what we will, and for the simple reason that we have to live with the choices we make. And do we not will those choices?

Jesus' parable of the sower is really the parable of the hearers. The point is not that there are different kinds of soils, which is obvious, but different kinds of hearers. Some can't or won't hear while others are hopelessly shallow, caught up in life's trivia and never giving the things that matter most a serious thought. They cannot come within understanding distance because they have too long sinned against the nobler instincts of the will. And so they have closed minds and closed hearts.

In this context our Lord gives a remarkable description of what we can be. Some hearers, he says, are those with "honest and good hearts" - not only good, which may stress sincerity, but honest and good, honesty pointing to the "want to," and determined will (desire) to understand and to do. The honest and good hearer is the one who comes within understanding distance.

This journal has different kinds of readers, and the difference is far more than that some read fast and some slow. In a recent mail came a letter from a new subscriber who not only wanted his subscription cancelled, but he had to tell the editor how heretical he is and how wrong his views are. He had not the slightest gratitude for the well-meaning person who paid for his subscription who must have supposed he would give the things said at least passing consideration. He seemed rather to resent it. Everything was negative. To him we are not only wrong about some things, which could well be true, but about everything. Yet he made no effort to apprise us of wherein we err. We are simply wrong (period). We obviously did not have him within "reading distance," and it may be our fault. And yet the letter reflected fear and insecurity, and I felt compassion for the dear brother. He read until he was threatened, then stopped and wrote the offender an irate letter. He was really crying for help, "Please don't threaten my security!" I understand and I love him, but I can't help him. He may not be beyond God's mercy, but he is beyond understanding distance. Thank God for that distinction!

Far more often a letter will say such as "I may not always agree, but you make me think," and sometimes they concede that thinking new thoughts and entertaining new ideas is a bit painful. But they are willing to think and even appreciate being "made" to think. Such ones have come within reading distance. How readest thou? I hope you do not do to yourself what the man did to his son when he delivered him to his school master with the instruction, "Don't teach him anything that he doesn't already know." As tragic as it is, that is the mentality that pervades our society, including our churches.

Jesus' call for simplicity, expressed as "If your eye be single, then your whole body shall be full of light," is a call for the child-like faith that wants to understand because it is a loving parent that speaks. The child is within understanding distance because it has not learned the distractions of pride and greed. We are "whole" when the eye is good, and only then do we see through the blur of arrogant self-will.

If we approach the Bible with single eye, with a child's simple trusting faith, we will be true to the greatest rule of interpretation of them all, and we will be within understanding distance. This will serve us better than all the commentaries that money can buy. — the Editor