The understanding of scripture.

To have a knowledge of scripture but no UNDERSTANDING of the MESSAGE is a knowledge that "puffeth up"
Saul was LEARNED in all the scriptures and sat under the greatest teachers(theologians?) of his day.
yet with ALL his learning UNDERSTOOD ...............NOTHING.
To the extent that he thought he was doing GODS WILL in the persecution of the saints even unto death.
When he 'saw the light' he didnt suddenly lose all his reasoning or learning but now they were PUT IN CONTEXT!
and his mind was SUBMITTED TO THE MIND OF CHRIST.
That also does not meen he 'lost' his mind.
But that now his OWN thoughts and REASONING were not the FINAL arbiter of the truth.
But he WILLINGLY subjected each thought "unto the mind of Christ"
and all that learning came under GODS hand and was then DIRECTED in the RIGHT WAY!
and can be seen in the OUTPOURING of his thinking in his letters now not in the DEAD LETTER but in the QUICKENED WORD.
When PAUL prayed for the CHRISTIANS in Ephasus it that thier EYES of thier UNDERSTANDING may be OPENED that they may COMPREHEND with all the saints what is the exceeding greatness of His power that is towards them who believe.................."
Can it be doubted that he was looking BACK to that day when HIS eyes of understanding were opened and he SAW and UNDERSTOOD the POWER of HIS RESURECTION?
and so coiuld pray the more efectively for those who had not yet GRASPED or understood even as Christians thre POWER made AVAilABLE to them CONTINUALLY who believed and of which he was alive to.
The devil seeking STILL to BLIND THE MIND so that they would not.
How?
By DISENTION,CONTENTION,CONFUSION and STRIFE.
So that if you allow it, you cannot think STRAIGHT.
For though we may be BORNagain yet as BABES even in this world we have to GROW in our UNDERSTANDING and knowledge.and take our place in doing so in the world we now live.
Therefore we MUST get a RIGHT understanding.
For in the book of Ephesians Paul speaks of the church (which is His BODY) "coming to the UNITY of the FAITH"
Now some are seeking a so called 'unity' at the expence of TRUTH.Thinking that the LIGHT can have fellowship with DARKNESS.
But the UNTIY of "THE faith....." comes by ALL in the BODY haveing the same UNDERSTANDING which we have already shown produces FAITH!
Not just of ONE part of the truth for instance concerning being BORNagain.
But CONCERNING the WHOLE gospel.
But the WHOLE is BROKEN into PARTS.
and if we look at the Lord HE "took the BREAD and BRAKE it,THEN gave it to His disciples"
and often did so.
On the road to emaus he again BROKE the bread of scriptures THAT THE "EYES of thier understanding could be opened" and though as He did so they still did not recognise Him who spoke to them yet "did not thier hearts burn with in them when He did"! and it was when He BROKE THE BREAD that thier eyes were OPENED and they RECOGNISED HIM "of whom they spoke."
nd now though BEFORE they had been "WEARIED OF THE JOURNEY" were so QUICKENED by the Word and the POWER of His resurection that they RAN back to Jerusalem
Very often when the Word is preached our hearts BURN WITHIN us but we do not recognise it til afterwards.
If we was to stop and think about it we will also recognise those times before we were saved when we felt that burning but took n notice.
That the Word was BROKEN to our understanding by the Holy Spirit unbeknown maybe to others.
yet working still. untill we were able to GRASP it and the LIGHT DAWNED and our faith IN God was BORN.
Yet we soemtimes forget how WE recived it and try and give it to others WHOLE and unbroken.
and expect them to believe.
and though we can trust God to Work yet is it not written that we are "co-workers with God"?
and to freely give even as we have recived?
So if it has bene 'broken' unto us then we should as far as we are able break it to others.
and not think that by giving a load of scriptures it will nessercarily give understanding!

Now if God thought it wise that He gave in PART by the prophets in sundry times and not only in PART but by DIVERS WAYS.
if we look at the LIFE of Christ we see too that He gave in PART and in divers ways for that si what "He saw the FATHER DOING."
and even as the Lord used varios WAYS to present the TRUTH should we not then do as He?
and use "every means to win some"
Therefore we should learn to' BREAK' or "RIGHTLY DIVIDE the Word of God"
Now to get BREAD you need WHEAT.
and to get WHEAT you need the GROUNDED SEED .
And for the "TRUE BREAD of heaven" To be ABLE to FEED the world it too must needs be broken.
But "the WORD IS A SEED" and that seed which was CHRIST was GROUND between the millstones of Gods wrath when "He became sin" and our judgement fell on Him and in ourstead.
So that His BODY is BREAD in deed and all who eat of it have LIFE.
But here is a thing....
WE who are HIS and are BORNagain of that "INCORRUPTABLE SEED" must needs also be broken so that the LIFE that is WITHIN us may come forth which is CHRIST.
and so if we wish men to UNDERSTAND the MESSAGE without a doubt we must be "crucyfied WITH Christ"
that we might be able to take the 12 loaves and the 5 fishes and feed those who are hungry.
Not for the belly but for rightousness.
"For they who HUNGER and THIRST after rightousness shall be filled"
and HOW wil they be filled and thier thirst quenched if it is not by the EACH PART of the BODY doing that for which it was saved FOR AND PREORDAINED TO DO
"fOR OUT of YOUR belly will flow RIVERS OF LIVING WATER"
and we are to FREELY GIVE that which we have RECEIVED.
We cannot give what we have not got.
But in the MEASURE of what we have we should give.
and we will find that in the measure we give if it is ALL then we will have returned "pressed down and running ....."
So that we will have even more to GIVE.
and that which started out asa trickle wil become a flood.
For we are not to be filled to the BRIM.
But to OVERFLOWING.
What has this to do with understanding the scriptures?
It was the KNOWLEDGE that Christ was ALIVE.
Not a DOCTRIN.(though it is)
BUT ALIVE!
that spurred those two back to jerusLEM. To do what?
Give that which they had recived.
It was the FACT and the POWER THAT WAS TOWARDS THEM even the SAME that raised up Christ from the dead which ENABLED them to do so and turned the world upside down.
It was the UNDERSTANDING that "the just shall live by FAITH" that revolutionaised LUTHORS LIFE and changed the world and turned it upside down.
For how long did he struggle?
read the life of JOHN BUNYON and see his struggle to UNDERSTAND the message.
But oH! when He did!
the results speak for themsleves.
and thpough he was cast into prison it could not STOP that RIVER of living water flowing which STILL reaches us today.
and is as PURE and undefiled AS WHEN HE WROTE IT.
LATIMER and RIDLEY "lit a candle" that though is semingly is dim at present has STILL not gone out nor ever will.
What they 'Saw' was no vain vision of the imagination of the heart.
But was the UNDERSTANDING of the MESSAGE!
and "the eyes of thier understanding were OPENED....."
The scriptures a a GOLDMINE.
A VAST unttapped in the main TREASURE.
John said? that if ALL the things the Lord said and did were recorded the whole earth could not contain the books recording them.
But what IS recorded is the SEED from the seed it bringeth forth after its own kind.
So what you SOW is what you will REAP.
This applies to the POSOTIVEas well as the negative.
and in the death of the seed and the BREAKING of it;it brings forth the LIFE with in it.
and "NO Word of God si without power"
"And it shall NOT return unto me void but shall acomplish that whereunto I sent it"