It starts innocently enough, I suppose.
You develop an idea or theory about the Scriptures that sounds pretty good. Maybe you hear someone else’s theory, and it sounds like it might be true.
So you go to the Bible, and what do you know - you seem to start seeing support for your idea or theory everywhere throughout the Bible. Soon you’re teaching and preaching your idea in a lot of your lessons. You start to see all of the Bible through the lens of your theory.
And this is so dangerous in Bible study.
There is nothing so dangerous as to come to the Bible with a theory, with preconceived ideas, with some pet idea of our own, because the moment we do so, we shall be tempted to over-emphasize one aspect and under-emphasize another. - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 7
We must start with the Bible when we study, not with our own ideas.
When preparing your sermons each week - do you start with your idea or a biblical passage?
Instead of allowing our ideas to mold the Bible passages we select for our sermons, why not allow the context and meaning of the Bible passages to determine the direction of our sermons?
Explore the entire context of a biblical passage, and see where it takes you. I think you will find that you will have far more material than you could possibly fit into one sermon. And you will have been faithful to the text of God’s word. You will have truly “preached the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).
Keep up the good work brothers!