Let me admit up front my approach to reading Scripture is somewhat hodge-podge. I (attempt to) read the Scriptures as an act of obedience to the Jesus proclaimed in the kerygma contained in and witness to by the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. That means I (attempt to) read all of the Scriptures in light of the Gospel as I understand it. Whenever I open to a particular passage – say, John 2 or Psalm 50 – I go there to see and to hear the kerygmatic Gospel, to allow it to speak to me, to “read” me. I go to the Scriptures as a Christian, not as an as-yet-uncommitted “seeker of truth.” I take my understanding of the Gospel with me.
Of course, I got this understanding of the Gospel in part by reading and performing the Scriptures. But I never went to Scriptures as a not-yet-comitted seeker. From the first, I went there with an agenda. Slowly, and not all at once, by the Spirit’s unperceived (and usually unsought) guidance, I came to “hear” the Gospel. Then I began to become a Christian reader of the Scriptures.
I go to the Scriptures to interpret them. I mean this in two senses. (1) I go to them attempting to make Christian meaning of them. (2) I go to them attempting to find motive and pattern for living a Christ-oriented life. Richard Burton, Ethan Hawke, and Mel Gibson, among others, have “interpreted” Hamlet; meaning they attempted to embody the Hamlet they found in Shakespeare’s text(s). I have to find a way to “interpret” Jesus, to embody his life as I find it in the text.
This raises myriad questions. Some I could answer; most I could not answer adequately, even for myself. At least not yet.
God bless you in your continuing journey. You seem to be on the right track!
His blessings to you this day.
Tim