Biblical Foundations: Inference & Examples

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Biblical Foundations: Inferences & Examples

Introduction: In our last lesson, we observed the ways God communicated his will to others. We noted that we were not creating some new way of interpretation. We were simply observing how God communicates, and even how humans communicate. Since God created us and gave us our communication skills, it makes sense that there would be a standard way communication works.

In the example we used in Acts 10, we noted that God could have simply told Peter to go teach and baptize the Gentiles. Direct command! Done! Go do it! Instead, God gave two visions, one to him and one told him by Cornelius, in which he expected Peter to draw some conclusions about Gentiles. God gave one direct statement about going to Cornelius’ house, and then poured out the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles. Though God had only made one direct statement to Peter, Peter concluded from the visions and the pouring out of the Spirit that he should command Cornelius and his house to be baptized.

In chapter 11 of Acts, when Peter was rebuked by the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem for going to the Gentiles, he related to them the events of Acts 10, which caused them to draw the same conclusion to accept the Gentiles even though God never directly stated for them to do so (11:15-18).

There are only so many ways in which people communicate, and this will always include some form of telling, showing, and implying. Implying or inferring or drawing conclusions is a primary act of reasoning. In fact, if we cannot use inferences or implications, then there is no way to actually apply the scriptures. Let’s notice how often the Lord expected us to reason & apply:

Jesus’ Use of Inferences

1. Luke 10:25-28 A scribe put Jesus to the test by asking what he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus turned the question around on him and told him to answer his own question. The scribe answered with what Jesus later called the two great commandments. Jesus said the scribe answered correctly. So how did the scribe through study figure out that it was these two commands that summarized everything the Law said about eternal life? The Law never stated that these are the greatest commandments nor that these two commands were key to eternal life? Notice that the scribe not only drew a conclusion that was never directly stated in scripture, he also knew that his conclusion was binding. In other words, the OT had revealed what it would take to have eternal life without ever directly stating it! 
2. Luke 10:29-37 We would think the conversation would have ended with Jesus’ words, “Do this and you will live.” But the scribe pursued further, which brings up the real question of whether we are properly discerning God’s will: “And who is my neighbor?” Note that the scribe already gave the right answer! But now he reveals that his problem over the years has had nothing to do with his understanding of scripture and whether his scriptural inferences and conclusions were binding, his question has always been the wrong question – and when we ask wrong questions we will come up with wrong conclusions.
3. We know what was in the mind of the scribes from other texts: “Surely by the word ‘neighbor’ God does not expect us to help some unclean, immoral Samaritan or Gentile!” Simply stated, Jesus’ story illustrates how to make an application from the knowledge gleaned. The neighbor is whoever needs your help!! But people who are trying to skirt the scriptures because they are affected by their own desires, are going to parse out words in order to rationalize themselves as having an exemption or acting as if the text doesn’t really mean what it plainly says. The problem was not in understanding, the problem was in doing.
4. Example today from Matthew 19:9, “But what is adultery? It is the act of getting a divorce and the act of getting married again. Thus ‘adultery’ is not sexual, but a one-time event.”
5. Mark 12:18-27 The Sadducees’ challenge of the resurrection:
   1. 1. First, was Jesus’ rebuke: “you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” That is a strong statement to religious leaders who were of the priestly lineage! Jesus accused them of not only being poor Bible students, but also they had not read the scriptures in such a way as to perceive the power of God.
      2. Second, Jesus challenged them with a simple text that if one considered carefully they could infer/conclude that there would be a resurrection: Exodus 3:6. Though Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for 500 years, God still said “I AM” their God. God is not the God of dead (non-existent) people. Thus, they live and would be resurrected. How many of us have studied that carefully? This is a typical way God communicates!

Jesus and the Apostles Use of Examples

1. Considering Examples: Someone says, “There are tons of ‘examples’ in scripture and you just choose the ones you would like to follow and leave out others. How are we suppose to know which of the so-called examples to follow?”
2. Let’s begin with whether Jesus ever used examples in order to teach. In other words, did Jesus ever appeal to an example in order to teach a principle? Indeed he did: Matthew 12:1-8. The Pharisees had misused the Sabbath commands to make restrictions God had not intended. Jesus answer was to use two examples of people who violated their self-imposed restrictions in order to prove them wrong: David eating the showbread and the priests working on the Sabbath. He concluded with an overriding principle from Hosea 6:6. 
3. In other words, Jesus used these two examples to show the Jews that their approach to the Sabbath command was flawed. What they should have done was ask better questions when they studied. For example, “Why can the priests do work on the Sabbath and be blameless? Why could David and his men eat the showbread when they were fleeing from Saul? Why can a shepherd pull a sheep out of a ditch on the Sabbath.” In each case, there was a principle about Sabbath keeping and worship in general that kept the Sabbath law within its original context.
4. Therefore, when we look at scripture, instead of asking, “When is an example binding,” ask, “What is God intending to show us in what he has revealed?” We are not looking for a list of “rules,” but seeking to know what God wants us to do and how to do it.
5. Let’s demonstrate this principle from 1 Corinthians: 
   1. 1 Cor. 4:6 Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another [NLT]. “Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another” [CSB].
      1. 1 Cor. 4:14-17
      2. 1 Cor. 7:17
      3. 1 Cor. 10:31–11:1
      4. 1 Cor. 11:16
      5. 1 Cor. 14:33-34
      6. 1 Cor. 16:1-2 
6. Consider also that we see this same principle in other texts that give us universal patterns on how a local church is to function and the worship and work they are to do.
   1. 1 Thes. 2:13-14
   2. Phil. 4:9 “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things.”

The Lord’s Supper Example

1. “How do I know that Acts 20:7 is supposed to be a pattern for taking the Supper on the 1st day of the week?”
2. First, let’s ask a question: If there were two passages that showed Christians taking the supper on the first day of the week, would that change your mind? How many passages are needed for us to believe that’s we also ought to do? Remember, we do not know anything except what is revealed.
3. Why not Saturday? All we know is that Christians partook on the 1st day. To partake any other day is to take a leap that is not based on evidence and therefore, not of faith. We must act on the basis of what God has shown rather than what he has not shown. 
4. The question therefore is, has God shown approval of his disciples taking the Supper on the first day? By doing the same can we know God is pleased? Then why would we talk about doing something in which we do not know anything? 
5. Remember also that the scriptures are very concise compared to what we might desire. “Couldn’t you give more evidence of what you want Lord?” Well, he could, but why would he need to? 
6. For example, do we see Elisha arguing with or giving a more full explanation to Naaman on why he couldn’t dip in the Damascus rivers to be clean? Did God have to say, “Don’t dip in any other river?” Did he have to say, “By dipping, I don’t mean pouring or sprinkling?” Would God have been pleased if Naaman had come back and argued with Elisha about the instructions? When we go down the paths that look into things God did not say, aren’t we simply saying, “But do I have to?” 
7. And by the way, 1st and 2nd century Christians had no problem figuring out that the Supper was to be taken on the first day of the week. Dozens of secular writings tell us this. No one thought any differently.
8. Are there details in examples that are not necessary? Sure! And it is not hard to figure that out because that’s how normal communication works. When Jesus washed the disciples feet (John 13) and told them that he had given them an example to do the same, he followed up with, “A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” Therefore, what was the example that Jesus was teaching? Being a servant in whatever way that would be done. Jesus certainly wasn’t instituting foot washing ceremonies for future generations who didn’t need their feet washed, nor was he suggesting this was exclusive way of being a servant.
9. Therefore, in Acts 20:7, when the disciples “came together on the first day of the week to bread bread, was the intention of this text to teach about the upper room, night time, lights, a long sermon, and a guy falling out a window? Or, was the intended focus on “they waited seven days to meet with the disciples on the first day in order to break bread?”

Conclusion: Ephesian 3:4; 5:17

Berry Kercheville