The views we prefer & believing in self over God
by Stephen Kneale, Desiring God:
One of the dangers when it comes to biblical interpretation is leaning towards views that we prefer. We may hit on bits of the Bible that jar with us. Otherwise, there are interpretations of passages that would justify what we want to be true while others rub against what we wish was true. When we hit upon them, it is always tempting to run with the translation we prefer.
This is not a new problem. Augustine of Hippo said, ‘If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.’ More recently, in a similar vein, Tim Keller said this:
Both thoughts speak to this tendency.
And we must be honest, all of us are tempted to it. We are all prone to wanting scripture to agree with us, or interpreting it in ways that suit whatever we wish it said. There are doctrines that are easy to believe because they chime with our culture or personal disposition and there are those that are harder to swallow because they are not well regarded by our culture or they do not suit us. The temptation to re-interpret those that don’t suit us is ever present.
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