Hermeneutic 7

7-Be conscious of "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13).  Satan tempted Jesus with a twisted hermeneutic (Matt. 4:6).  Because He had a better interpretation of His situation and of God's Word, Jesus was able to avoid the evil path Satan offered.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ". (2 Cor. 11:3).  He had warned them earlier "not to go beyond what is written" (1 Cor. 4:6), advice that many ignored.

Peter warned that "the ignorant and unstable twist" Paul's writings "to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures" (2 Pet. 3:16).  No one likes to be told they are wrong, yet a primary message of Scripture overall is "Repent!"  The Bible presents the major impediment to understanding God's Word as moral, not intellectual.  Our tendency is to suppress the truth by our unrighteousness (cf. Rom. 1:18). (1 Tim. 1:15; James 3:2).  Otherwise, hermeneutics can become and agenda for proving self-righteousness from Bible passages.