Task 1: Clarify the Points to Be Interpreted and Applied
Essence of the task
This task requires us to identify the points to be interpreted and applied. It is about clearly identifying the affirmations made by the passage that we, in honoring the authority of the text, should highlight for our audience (in a contextualized way). If the passage makes two affirmations, we should too. If the passage highlights four truths, it is our duty to interpret and apply those four truths.
Detailed description
A quick reading of this task, «to identify with precision the points to be interpreted and applied», might lead one to think that it is more work than it really is. It is true that it is necessary to bring to light the explicit and implicit statements of the passage, but if we have been following an orderly process up to this point, it will not be necessary to go review the whole of our pericope as if we had not done any prior work.
- First of all, because of the amount of time we have already invested in the study of the passage, we will have a notion of the affirmations that the text intends to convey. At the very least we should already perceive what needs to be interpreted and applied.
- Second, since we have already drafted an exegetical idea (in the previous stage), and we can assume that it includes the whole message of the passage, it is likely that everything that the passage affirms and demands that we transmit to our listeners can be found in what we have said there.
- Third, having summarized the units of thought of the passage in Tuesday’s Task 4, we can probably discern without too much additional effort, the basic idea that each thought unit affirms. In fact, if you go back to that Task 4, you will see that right there it says something like this, «By summarizing the thought units in this way we aim to bring out each of the author’s important ideas or statements so that we can then interpret and apply them.» Specifying those important ideas or statements – but now with the immediate intention of conveying their contemporary significance to our audience – is what this assignment is all about.
To Do
With this in mind, put in writing – simply and concretely – the affirmations the passage makes. In many cases you will be able to identify one point to interpret and apply for each of the units of thought you identified in the text (point 3, above), or one point to interpret and apply for each phrase in the exegetical idea you have written down (point 2, above). Ultimately, try to put down on paper what your mind intuitively believes the passage intends to teach (point 1, above) and review it until you can see that it captures all the important points to work on.
The most important aspect of this task is simply to flesh out the points to be interpreted and applied. All of the following tasks depend on getting this right. If it helps, prepare a sheet or file for each point you identify. Then, in tasks 2, 3, and 4, you can expand on that information and clarify the identified point.
To Keep in Mind
We must never lose sight of the fact that each of these important points is only part of the whole. Therefore, it is vital that they do not take on a prominence that does not correspond to the message of the whole pericope. The message of the lesson or sermon is contained in the main idea of the pericope. The points support that main idea. That is, for example, they should not become mini-sermons within the larger sermon.
Similarly, it is worth emphasizing that the present task can be very brief. It is exclusively a matter of identifying the points to be interpreted and applied. Yes, we need to identify them precisely and clearly, but we don’t need to elaborate on them (as part of this task.)