Changi Chapel

When handling the Scriptures, sanctification and speculation rise and fall in inverse proportion.

As speculation increases, sanctification decreases. The more guessing the less blessing.

Who will give up their life for a speculation? Will you gouge out an eye or cut off a hand, because of a guess?

Suppositions make weak expositions.

Those of us who love to study the Word (and teach the Word) are sometimes tempted to speculate because the “possibilities” are so interesting!

For example…
* Was Melchizedek really Christ himself in Genesis 14?
* When Jacob wrestled all night with “a man” (Genesis 32:24) was it Christ?
* Was the fourth person in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:25) Christ?
* Could the splitting of the waters of the Red Sea be explainable by God’s using some cosmic catastrophe to create atmospheric conditions that caused the waters to divide?
* Did Mary Magdalene have a crush on Jesus?

So when we teach the Word, we must be careful to provide authentic spiritual nourishment. My point is that people need solid food, not possible food.

They need a sure word from God, not a guess from man. They need a biblical “Thus says the Lord,” not a “Maybe God said.”

So I say again, the crying need is not to spend time speculating, but to dig deeper into what is really there in the text.

You and I have very limited time for study of the Bible. Don’t waste your time speculating. Don’t like Eve speculate – just obey!

My plea is simple: dive deeper in what’s there in God’s Word.

And if you love sanctification, avoid speculation.

Are you diving deeper each day into what is there in Scripture – or fantasizing about Biblical possibilities and ‘maybe’s?

John Piper
Pastor/Bible Teacher/Author
Adapted and excerpted from his recent writings

© John Piper

Your comments, thoughts or suggestions are welcome. The body text is by the author, the header and the words in italics are mine – John B. Samuel