Developing the art of observation

So I figured as I pose questions in Bible study methods that I would give anyone who is interested time to meditate on the questions posed and then a few days latter show my conclusions and how I reached them. As the title states this is really about developing the art of observation. As Sherlock Holmes was a genius in this area observing every little detail, so should we be as we study scripture. If we simply pass over scripture without taking time to observe the little details and then posing questions about them we will never truly understand God's Word the way He intended it to be understood. So as we looked at the statement of the Philippian jailer, in Acts 16, when he asked Paul what he had to do to be saved. I asked the question why in the world did he ask that? Why didn't he just shut the cell door and go back home? Or you could ask how did he come to an understanding of the fact that he needed salvation and on top of that how is  he using the word saved? Is it for salvation as Christians would see it or is he meaning something else? These are the kind of questions I find myself constantly asking as I study scripture. The first place to start when trying to answer such questions is of course context. Without context statements in scripture can mean anything the person interpreting them chooses them to mean. Scripture then no longer becomes absolute but relative. And if that is the case then we are all as Paul says, "most miserable" because our faith is built on nothing firm. So to get back to the one question about how the jailer is using the term saved we can look at how Paul responds to that question. "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Paul responded in a way, regardless of whether the jailer was using the word saved in a different way, to point him toward the gospel. Paul either chose to direct the conversation toward biblical salvation or assumes that is what the jailer is asking about. Now the jailer didn't say something like, "no I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was how can I be saved from my employers, because when they find out about this incident I am likely to be in a lot of trouble." He didn't do that. What the jailer did in response to Paul's answer though was to take Paul and SIlas to his house and allow them to further explain what that statement meant about believing in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Now assuming we are going to take that interpretation that the jailer meant biblical salvation and we are going to use Paul's response and the jailers response to Paul answer as our defense to our position,. We can also support that interpretation with another contextual statement or description. We looked at what happened after the Jailer asked the question but what happened before in the context of this event can also help us answer that question regarding the use of the word saved as well as how the jailer came to the understanding of his need for biblical salvation if that was how he was using the word.. Because if he understood his need for biblical salvation, then he most definitely would be using the word saved in that context. So we have to go all the way back to verse 14 of chapter 16 to gather our information. But because I want to keep these blog posts short I will let you all look at that passage to see if you can observe what is there to support our interpretation. So until the next post, God bless and keep searching the scriptures. 

In humble service to Christ
Mark Hynek