How do I find out when a Bible passage applies to me?

Question

Can I read a Bible passage and personalize it? Meaning, does it apply to me? How do I know when it is for me or for someone else ?

For example, Isaiah 54:4:

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth

I really like that passage because of my life experiences and I would love for that to apply to me. However, I believe this chapter is for the people and glory of Zion.

So how do I think of it? Can I use it as if he was writing to me or is this their story?

Taking passages out like this and applying them to our specific life experiences seem to be the basis for many preachers sermons. It can be very uplifting and helpful but I wonder to what extent can I personally live it?

Can I go around life thinking about something negative that happened in the past and counter it with:

"Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame."

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answers should be about the general question "How do I find out when a Bible passage applies to me?" not necessarily specifically about the example text!

Answer 1

How do I find out when a Bible passage applies to me?

Speaking from a Christian perspective, and assuming:

• The whole Bible is written under God's direction
• Each text was directed at an original person or audience, but...
• God had in mind that later generations would be 'listening in'
• All scripture is intended to be useful to us

The question then becomes:

How do I find out how a Bible passage applies to me?

I'd like to suggest some principles that might be helpful:

1. Apply the passage to the original audience first:

   

   It is an error to directly apply any text to ourselves personally, because none are directed at us personally. Having understood how the text applies to the original audience, we may then proceed to apply it to ourselves.

   This process is fundamentally the same for all texts, but for some, the leap from "them" to "us" is smaller (eg the Gospels), and for some it is larger (eg Leviticus). In the case of a smaller leap, we have to be more careful we are not applying directly because such a mistake would be less obvious—conversely, with those widely divorced from our own context we are less likely to apply directly but making the application to ourselves is more difficult.

2. Look for how the passage relates to Christ

   For example in 1 Samuel 17 we see God's rescuer (David) defeat the enemy of God's people (Goliath):

   • we see God's people, much afraid and powerless against an enemy far greater than themselves
   • we then see how God again rescues his people
   • this theme in the Old Testament, that God's people need rescuing time and again, is going to be fixed one day (though not because God's people deserve it)
   • Elijah is to return and prepare the way for this
   • and he does, so the coming of Jesus is identified with the final arrival of God among His people

   Application to 'me' is possible in a variety of ways for example:

   • I need God's rescue
   • How much more should I rejoice in it—as my salvation is much greater than the Israelites through David (they won the battle, but still died)
   • Through Christ's rescue of me, I become his fellow-worker, and in that role, I may identify with David in the passage and seek to be like him
   • My situation is worlds apart from the Israelites in David's time, but God is the same now as he was then, so I can take comfort in his overwhelming power of rescue—both to me and through me, demonstrated as he defeats the giant Goliath with a mere shepherd-boy

Answer 2

This question is broad; here are a number of basic principles to apply:

1. Avoid "me first" exegesis.
2. Do Christological, that is, "Christ first" exegesis; Jesus and the apostles did.
3. Many passages in their direct and most specific application apply only to the people at that time. However, insofar as they fit into redemptive history, they bear some relation to Christ.
4. If you are in relation to Christ—that is, if you are united to him by the Holy Spirit—then many of the passages which apply to him apply to you in some mode.
5. Passages about the people of God in the Old Testament can in many places be applied to the church today.
6. Some passages are about the Lord's enemies. You better hope those aren't about you.

So to take your example, the prophet is prophesying about the return from exile of the people of God. Don't skip over that in your mind. However, that return does prefigure the salvific work of Christ; that is, through him it does apply to his people. So in the case of this particular passage, yes, it does apply to you—but don't lose sight of Christ in that!

Answer 3

From a modern hermeneutics perspective:

First, the distinction needs to be made as to whether or not you're asking when or how. When indicates a circumstantial acknowledgement of the purview of Scripture on one's life whereas how indicates constant purview of Scripture.

There are also three words that seem to be used interchangeably but that are actually quite distinct: meaning, significance, and application. These words move from objectivity to subjectivity along a spectrum, respectively. Thus, meaning is the most objective and application the most subjective. The goal of this approach is to start with finding the object meaning of the passage, understand its significance to the original audience and find contemporary parallels, and then to apply that significance (the "nugget of truth") to your life and the life of your community (of faith or otherwise).

A common approach would be to follow a process such as the following:

1. Place the passage in literary context.
   Immediate context (how does the passage fit into the story)
   Larger Context (how does the story fit into the larger narrative)
2. Place the passage in cultural/historical context.
3. Identify significant questions arising from the passage and/or its context.
4. Identify keywords that may need exploration.
5. Synthesize this information into a picture of how the original audience would have received it.
6. Why would this be important to the original audience (immediate truth)? *
7. What about this is timeless (contemporary truth)? *
8. How is it possible for me to express this timeless truth in my life? Also, how does this timeless truth impress itself upon me/change me? *

This is just a rough outline, and is a from-memory summary of Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard's Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. More advanced studies should expand steps 1-5 by using many different types of critical methods (socio-rhetorical criticism, sensus plenior, source criticism, text criticism, historical-grammatical etc. which are not, in and of themselves "schools" of hermeneutics, but methods to be applied by exegetes who are following the "hermeneutical process.") which expands the scope of potential meanings.

So how do you know if/when a passage "applies" to you? It depends on your intent and process. If you are responsible with the text, then the application will become evident.

*[Note that steps 6-8 are more subjective and it is at this point that theological and doctrinal frameworks begin to come into play (and this is acceptable for the purpose of seeking application from a text).]