Is All of the Bible Written to Us, or Is All of It for Us?

Imagine finding a stack of letters in your grandparents' old desk. One is from your grandfather to your grandmother, written while he worked overseas. It says, "Meet me at the pier on Saturday at noon." Reading it, you learn a great deal: how much he loved her, what life was like in those years, what kind of man he was. The letter is genuinely valuable for you.

But you would never drive to the pier next Saturday expecting to meet him. Why? Because the letter was not written to you. Its instructions belonged to someone else, at another time, in another situation.

The Bible works in a similar way. It is one book with one Author, but it contains many messages given to different people across thousands of years. Some Christians read every verse as though it were a personal note addressed directly to them. Others, sensing that much of the Bible doesn't seem to fit their lives, quietly ignore large portions of it. Rightly dividing offers a better way. As Paul told Timothy:

To "rightly divide" is to handle Scripture accurately by recognizing its divisions: who is speaking, who is being addressed, and what God was doing at that time. That begins with the difference between two little words, to and for.

Let's be absolutely clear before going any further: every word of the Bible matters to the believer today. Paul, the apostle of grace, insists on it.

He says the same about the Old Testament in particular: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4). Writing about Israel's wilderness journey, he adds: "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Notice the pronouns in that last verse. These things happened unto them, but they were written for our admonition. That one sentence captures this entire article.

What we gain from every book

From Genesis to Revelation we learn who God is: His holiness, faithfulness, mercy, and justice. We learn about human nature and sin. We see faith in action in the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, and countless others. We read prophecies fulfilled in Christ and prophecies still awaiting fulfillment. The Psalms teach us to worship and lament. Proverbs teaches practical wisdom. The four Gospels show us the Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly life.

Paul even reminded Timothy that the Scriptures he had known from childhood, the Old Testament, were "able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). A believer who neglects the Old Testament is missing a vast treasure.

If every command in the Bible were addressed directly to us, we would immediately run into problems. Consider just a few examples:

• God told Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood" (Genesis 6:14). No believer today thinks God requires them to build a boat.
• God commanded Abraham's male descendants to be circumcised (Genesis 17:10). Paul told Gentile believers, "if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing" (Galatians 5:2).
• Leviticus 11 forbids eating pork and shellfish. Paul writes that "every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy 4:4).
• The Sabbath was "a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever" (Exodus 31:16–17). Paul writes, "Let no man therefore judge you... in respect of... the sabbath days" (Colossians 2:16).
• Jesus sent the twelve out with "neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses" and told them not to go to Gentiles (Matthew 10:5–10). Later He told them to take a purse (Luke 22:35–36). Even within the Gospels, instructions changed as God's program moved forward.

None of this means God contradicts Himself. It means God has given different instructions to different people at different times. Paul himself explains a key principle:

And believers today are told plainly, "ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Paul also lists the things that belong to Israel: "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Romans 9:4). By contrast, he reminds Gentile believers that they were once "strangers from the covenants of promise" (Ephesians 2:12).

So when we read the covenants, the law, and the promises given to Israel, we read them for our learning, while recognizing they were addressed to Israel.

Many New Testament letters actually begin by stating who they are addressed to. Simply reading the "envelope" is often enough to see the difference.

Paul calls himself "the apostle of the Gentiles" (Romans 11:13) and says the "dispensation of the grace of God" was given to him for us (Ephesians 3:2). The Jerusalem leaders agreed that Paul would go to the Gentiles while Peter, James, and John would go to "the circumcision" (Galatians 2:7–9). That is why James and Peter address Jewish believers scattered abroad, and why Paul's letters carry our address.

This is also why Paul could say, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). He is the pattern God has given for believers in this dispensation (1 Timothy 1:16).

You don't need a seminary degree to rightly divide. You only need to slow down and ask a few honest questions every time you open your Bible.

Some of the best-loved verses in the Bible become even richer when we read them in context. Here is how a few of them sort out.

Notice that rightly dividing never takes a verse away from us. It simply makes sure we are receiving it the right way. Jeremiah 29:11 stops being a vague promise of personal success and becomes something stronger: proof that God always keeps His word. And Romans 4 shows exactly how this works. After telling Abraham's story, Paul writes, "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also" (Romans 4:23–24).

Like a road with a ditch on each side, there are two opposite mistakes believers can make with this question.

Paul himself avoided both ditches. He quoted the Old Testament constantly; Romans alone is filled with citations from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Yet he never told Gentile believers to keep the law of Moses for righteousness. He told Timothy, "give attendance to reading" (1 Timothy 4:13), and he praised the Bereans for searching "the scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11).

It keeps the gospel clear

When instructions given to Israel are applied directly to us, the result is often a mixture of grace and works: keep the Sabbath, tithe to be blessed, be baptized to be forgiven, endure to the end to be saved. Paul's letters tell us plainly that we are justified "freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).

It removes apparent contradictions

Many people put the Bible down because it seems to contradict itself. Should we sell everything (Luke 12:33) or provide for our own household (1 Timothy 5:8)? Must we keep the law (Matthew 23:2–3) or are we free from it (Romans 7:6)? When we notice who each passage is addressed to, these "contradictions" become clear distinctions.

It protects against disappointment

Believers who claim promises God never made to them, such as guaranteed healing, material prosperity, or a healed nation, can end up doubting God when those things don't happen. Knowing what God has actually promised us gives a sturdier faith.

It gives assurance

When you know which promises are addressed to you, you can rest your full weight on them: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). You are "sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). Those words carry your name and address.