Lesson 5 | Don't miss it: identifying the main and supporting ideas
A grave danger: misunderstanding the main point
Correctly discerning the main point is no mere formality. Anything from a poor application to serious doctrinal error can come as a result of misunderstanding the main point of a biblical text.
One far too common error (probably because it is a very natural mistake) is to confuse the main point the author intends with what may stand out as significant to you or me as readers amid our varying circumstances. That is, as we read, any one of the several points the author makes may strike us as particularly significant at the moment, but this does not necessarily mean we have identified the author’s main point.
To illustrate, have you ever reread a book that you had previously marked up with a highlighter and on the second reading wondered why you had made the highlights that you did? What was significant at the first reading may now seem not so important. New issues have risen to the surface of your thinking. Moreover, the question remains: do any of your highlights identify the main point the author is actually making?
Let’s consider a few specific examples of misunderstanding the main point.
I can do—anything I set my mind to—through Christ.
Did Paul say that?
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. —Philippians 4:10-13 ESV
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” has been reduced to not much more than a christian slogan in our day. Nathan Busenitz, professor at The Master’s Seminary writes,
It has been printed on posters and inspirational wall art. A quick internet search reveals that you can buy key chains, rings, buttons, t-shirts, stickers, postcards, bracelets, handbags, and other Christianized trinkets with the words of this verse emblazoned, embroidered, or embossed upon them. This verse even gained some notoriety among college football fans a couple years ago when a championship quarterback sported the verse on the glare-reducing strips he wore under his eyes. But the irony is that, by taking this verse out of context, many people have actually turned it on its head—making it mean the opposite of what it actually means. They have turned it into a slogan of personal empowerment—a declaration of self-achievement, ambition, and accomplishment. For many, this verse has been trivialized into some sort of motivating motto for material prosperity, career advancement or athletic success.
This christian version of an American can-do attitude is not only a misinterpretation and misapplication of this verse, it actually goes completely against the grain of the main point Paul makes in the surrounding paragraph. Even a light reading of Philippians 4:10-13 reveals that in v.12-13, Paul explains what he meant by his previous statement, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content”(v.11b). “I can do all things through Christ” is an expression of a dependence upon God that bears the fruit of contentment regardless of the circumstances. And further still, Paul’s affirms his contentment in order to make sure the Philippians don’t mistake his appreciation for their generous financial gift (v.10) as a hint that he’s asking for more (v.11a)!
God's done his part, now it's up to you to work out your own salvation.
A paraphrase of Paul?
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. —Philippians 2:12-13 ESV
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Many correctly recognize this command as the main point of its immediate context. The danger here is not so much in missing the main point, but in separating it from its support. Paul is not calling for a dig-down-deeper-and-try-harder sort of self-reliance. Nor does he have a synergistic view of salvation in which God has done his part and now we must do ours. But remove this main point from its support and you could certainly understand it in these ways.
On the other hand, buttress the command to “work out your salvation…” with the support Paul offers and you have fueled your life of sanctification with sin-conquering truth: “…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
D.A. Carson helpfully unpacks this idea in the following video clip.
Missing the main point of the Bible
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life!
Jesus (for real)
Trevin Wax comments on this text from John 5:39-40 (ESV).
In a heated discussion with the Jewish religious leaders of His day, Jesus remarked sadly that though His opponents were well-versed in the Scriptures, they had missed the main point. The Old Testament had been pointing to Jesus! The leaders knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, yet they had missed the signs pointing to the most important chapter in the Story that God was writing – the chapter that had been foreshadowed by the prophets and Bible writers for thousands of years.
Jesus makes a similar point to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus,
And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. —Luke 24:25-27 ESV
Wouldn’t you love to have sat in on that Bible lesson?! Jesus walks these two disciples through the pages of the Old Testament and shows them the main point: Messiah, whose pathway to glory is through suffering. Notice also that Jesus makes it clear why they missed the main point: their own foolish hearts, slow to believe what they were seeing. In other words, they may well have read the Scriptures correctly, but what it was saying was too much for them to believe. So, in disbelief, they took the Scriptures to mean something else entirely. That is a caution we must humbly heed.
How prone are we to make a text say something more palatable to our sensibilities simply because we do not have the heart to take God at his word?