I am guilty of taking scripture literally, but not very seriously. For example, as a 20 year-old preaching for a rural congregation (what possessed them to ask me to do that I will never know), we were studying the Gospel of John in our Sunday morning Bible class. When we ran across passages such as John 14:12, I took the words literally.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. John 14:12
I believed what Jesus said. However, since we were also a group that believed miracles no longer happen, and that seemed to me what Jesus was referring to, I explained to the class that Jesus was addressing his 12 disciples and not us. Essentially, I dismissed the passage as not having anything to do with us. I was reading the text literally, but did not know how to take it seriously.
At that time I believed that many parts of our Bible were no longer applicable, and so practically I had a canon within the canon of scripture. My Bible was carefully divided into what was meant for us and the parts which only held historical value, but which no longer pertained to us. Being a good Bible student involved dividing scripture in this way. We even had a verse to support this practice.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV
Despite good intentions, I did not know how to take all scripture seriously. If we are going to read scripture well, as having meaningful things to say to us, we have to do more than interpret it literally. A literal reading does not require faith, grace, or the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Any unbeliever can read scripture literally. However, spiritual reading is done by faith and reveals three non-literal meanings within any text.
First, everything is to be understood as a metaphor of our life in Christ. All scripture is about Christ, as he himself claims (John 5:39). We can find an analogy to our own life of faith and our relationship to Christ.
Second, every scripture, once we ponder the metaphorical meaning, urges us to some type of action. This is the moral sense of the passage. The way the text shows my life in Christ urges me to make some response.
Finally, every scripture may be contemplated in a mystical way which focuses on our union with God. The metaphor for my own life develops faith, the moral calling instills hope, and mystical reflection generates love. Every scripture is imparting faith, hope, and love when spiritually discerned.
For example, St. John Cassian (360 – 435) takes words from the psalms which literally advocate violence against one’s enemies, and turns them into a metaphor for our own spiritual lives.
As it is written, we should ‘early in the morning destroy all the wicked of the earth’ (Ps. 101: 8), distinguishing in the light of divine knowledge’ our sinful thoughts and then eradicating them completely from the earth -our hearts -in accordance with the teaching of the Lord. While the-children of Babylon -by which I mean our wicked thoughts -are still young, we should dash them to the ground and crush them against the rock, which is Christ (cf. Ps. 137: 9; 1 Cor. 10:4) St. John Cassian, The Philokalia
Did you follow the metaphor he uses? The enemies are our evil thoughts, the earth our hearts, the babies are thoughts just beginning, and bashing them against the rock our reliance on Christ. St. John Cassian is reading scripture in the spiritual tradition, but not literally.
If taken literally, these psalms advocate the sin of murder. Understood spiritually, they speak to our own life of faith, prompting us to the moral action of ‘killing’ our sinful thoughts, while recognizing that Christ is the mystical source of our salvation. Without a spiritual reading, these scriptures contradict Jesus’ teaching that we should love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). If everything is to be read literally, we have an inexplicable contradiction.
Many of us have never been taught to read scripture in any other manner than literally, and so a spiritual reading seems strange and subjective. However, the authors of the New Testament, if you look at how they use the Hebrew scriptures, often find non-literal meanings in the passages they cite. By their example, the spiritual meaning of scripture is not merely the literal one, but we take seriously the spiritual metaphor, the moral direction, and mystical reassurance of scripture – as recognized by faith through grace.
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