Build the Iceberg

It's great to be able to "boil things down" in a way that makes it more understandable.  Not only does it make things understandable, but it makes them memorable.  I've memorized many concepts from the Bible by boiling them down in a way that I can understand.  

Not only that, I've also used this technique in teaching and preaching.  It helps make things more understandable for my listeners.  When we "boil down" the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) into a single statement (Empower one more to walk together with God), we've just learned the gist of seven verses of Scripture in one statement.  Not only that, there is overlap in the Gospels, so we've actually remembered the concepts from even more verses.  This is pretty important since we are trying to read, understand, and apply 31,173 verses in total.  Boiling down ten or so of them is a good start.  Not bad for a day's work!

There are dangers associated with this, though.  Whenever I "boil down" Scripture to a concept, I need to understand it correctly in the first place.  A step of interpretation takes place.  In addition, a step of summation takes place as well.  There is a risk that something will be misinterpreted or dropped in the summary.  Let's look at an example.

Everybody knows this statement: "Money is the root of all evil."  Did you know that came from Scripture?  Well, it's close.  It's a summary statement boiled down from Scripture.  When I asked people what it really said, without looking it up, they knew something was wrong with the statement and began pulling out their own summaries.  "The love of money is the root of all evil," came another voice.  We talked about it, then quoted the actual verse from Scripture.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV)

In actuality, we didn't quote the whole verse.  We only talked about the first half, focusing on the phrases "love of money" rather than just "money" and "all kinds" rather than "all".  When you put it in context with the rest of the verses around it you find out what it's really talking about.  Don't let money pull you away from God.  It will be your undoing.  

See what can happen with boiling down Scripture?  It's a helpful tool, but at some point we need to go beyond the boiled down version to the real thing.  Robert, one of our small group members, mentioned last night that the best way to eat a vegetable is raw.  All the vitamins and nutrients are in it that way.  When we boil, steam, and otherwise cook them, we lose some of the benefits.  He's right.

Continuing with the food analogy, we need to start adding meat to our diets.

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV)

Notice what the Hebrew writer is talking about here.  Infants cry and someone feeds them.  The mature cut up their own meat and feed themselves.  At some point in our process we need to move from crying "you're not feeding me" to pulling out the Word of God and learning to read it for ourselves.  I realize the process is messy. We have some great pictures of our kids with cereal or pasta rings all over their faces, hair, and around them.  But they learned to feed themselves.  The same is true spiritually.

When we start reading and memorizing Scripture, we begin building depth to our faith.  We build an "iceberg" if you will.  Icebergs have 90% of their mass below the water's surface.  Only 10% is visible.  Teachers know that they are the best at teaching when they follow the iceberg principle.  That way, they are able to answer questions on the topic they teach.  When we read and memorize Scripture, we begin building our own icebergs.  This helps us in discussions about our faith when people ask us questions.  Oh, by the way, that's Biblical, too.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have... (1 Peter 3:15a NIV)

How about you?  Does "boiling down" concepts help you?  Have you moved beyond "boiled down" concepts to the real thing?  Do you still yell "feed me," or have you learned to cut up your own meat? Are you building your "iceberg?"