The Bible teaches, in Ephesians 5:17, that we must interpret the Bible the way God meant it to be understood: “Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Of course, in order to understand God’s will (the Bible), we must interpret it correctly. And it is obvious that it can be done, because there were those who did it (Acts 17:11). But how? How can we correctly interpret the Bible? The Bible tells us that too.
In the very last warning of the Bible, we are told: Do not add to, nor take away from what the Bible says (Revelation 22:18-19). Thus, if we wanted to “understand what the will of the Lord is” on prayer, we would, by following those instructions, search the New Testament and gather the verses which taught about prayer–without leaving off any verse, nor adding our will to the subject. In doing this, we would find: we are to ask (Mat. 7:7); ask in faith (Mat. 21:22); ask in Christ’s name (John 14:13); and ask according to God’s will (I John 5:14). But, what if the teaching of even one of these verses is ignored: Would God be obligated to answer our prayer? No. Why? Although we have an interpretation, it is incorrect–it is not the teaching of the Bible (the will of God). An actual case is recorded for our learning in James 4:3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Yes, their prayer was unanswered because they left off (ignored) what I John 5:14 taught; they asked according to their will–not God’s.
Truly, the Bible teaches that we must interpret the Bible correctly, and in order to do so, we must gather all the teachings of the Bible on a subject–without adding extra thoughts of our own, nor ignoring any verse which has something to add to the subject. Then and only then can we, as it is commanded, “all speak the same thing, and [have] no divisions among you” (1 Cor. 1:10).
Gary Henson