I’m really confused. Over the years I have read so many commentaries on the Bible. And so many seem to contradict each other. God said ” seek and ye shall find” So I guess I just keep trying to find the truth. Your answers make so much sense. I’m going to think a lot about what you have written. Thanks so much, my brother in Christ. And God bless you.
I know what you mean. No commentator’s findings can substitute for your own because everyone has some sort of bias. In reviewing (a well-known commentator’s) comments on Isaiah 53, for instance, I got the feeling that he believed that spiritual gifts were only available in the Church in the first century, although he never came right out and said so. But if that’s true, then he would believe that there is no faith healing possible today. Naturally, with that bias going in, he would have to view passages on healing as only spiritual.
We should heed Paul’s compliment to the Bereans and emulate them in our own studies. “They received the word with all readiness of heart, but searched the Scriptures daily to see if those things be true.” (Acts 17:11) In this time of deception, It’s important for each of to know from personal study what we believe and why.
For myself, I decided early on that I would never spend any time reading the commentaries of scholars who don’t adhere to a literal, historical, grammatical interpretation of Scripture. There’s enough disagreement even among them, but at least you don’t have to wonder what parts of the Bible they believe and what parts they don’t.