What if we have misunderstood what Jesus meant?
Trusting something Jesus said, which we actually misunderstood, is a recipe for disaster.
When our religious tradition, cultural lens, or personal approach to interpreting the Bible distorts what Jesus meant, our faith becomes a fantasy. We end up following a misimagination of Jesus. We start doing things he didn’t recommend and believing unreliable promises he didn’t make.
When our fabrication of Jesus turns out to be an untrustworthy and irrelevant fiction, we become disillusioned—before we even understand what Jesus is all about! The fake Jesus disappoints us, and the most sensible response is to discard the whole deal. It’s why “deconstruction” of misinformed Christian doctrine has become a growing epidemic. But it can be avoided.
The reason we misunderstand what Jesus meant is our assumptions. We assume Jesus taught universal truths to a timeless audience which can be instantly understood regardless of our culture or language today. We assume our translated Bible verses make the meaning of anything Jesus said plain and simple to understand. But that assumption blinds us to our own self-deception. It excuses us from carefully defining Jesus’ words by their particular use in his time and place. Instead, our personal and cultural biases run wild without us ever noticing it, distorting what Jesus meant.
Trusting something Jesus said, which we actually misunderstood, is a recipe for disaster.
When our religious tradition, cultural lens, or personal approach to interpreting the Bible distorts what Jesus meant, our faith becomes a fantasy. We end up following a misimagination of Jesus. We start doing things he didn’t recommend and believing unreliable promises he didn’t make.
When our fabrication of Jesus turns out to be an untrustworthy and irrelevant fiction, we become disillusioned—before we even understand what Jesus is all about! The fake Jesus disappoints us, and the most sensible response is to discard the whole deal. It’s why “deconstruction” of misinformed Christian doctrine has become a growing epidemic. But it can be avoided.
The reason we misunderstand what Jesus meant is our assumptions. We assume Jesus taught universal truths to a timeless audience which can be instantly understood regardless of our culture or language today. We assume our translated Bible verses make the meaning of anything Jesus said plain and simple to understand. But that assumption blinds us to our own self-deception. It excuses us from carefully defining Jesus’ words by their particular use in his time and place. Instead, our personal and cultural biases run wild without us ever noticing it, distorting what Jesus meant.
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