“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”
Think about a time when you came to a verse or series of verses in scripture that caused you to read it more than once. Even after you thought about what you read you still had a cloud bubble with a question mark over your head. Got some verse or verses in mind? The one that stands out for me wasn't so much a verse or verses but a word, and that word is...
Mystery.
What do you think of when you hear the word mystery? For me, as a kid of the '70s and '80s, my mind goes to a green van and a group of kids that could travel wherever, never worry about money, and had no one looking for them. How they survived was a mystery! But I digress.
I forget where I first read "mystery" in one of Paul's letters; He used the term over 20 times in his epistles. When I encountered the word mystery it felt hokey to me. I thought, "this guy came face to face with Jesus, was redeemed to spread the gospel to the Gentiles, given wisdom directly from Jesus, and mystery is the word he used?!" As I've had to discover on my own a couple (hundred) times, I was the one confused. I didn't fully understand, and I was convicted in my lack of understanding.
"I don't understand" is not blasphemy. It's nowhere near blasphemy. I do believe when we are learning and growing in God's word we can have the impression that not immediately understanding scripture is wrong or even sinful. Hear me: it's not! As we study scripture, we encounter phrases and sayings and figures of speech that are not common to us but have similar meanings to the language we do know.
So what do we do when we come to points in scripture we don’t understand? Find a trusted source - friend, pastor, Bible commentary - to help you get a better grasp on what you are studying. I would also recommend getting a group of people you can meet with regularly to study the Word and push one another in your sanctification. Better yet, get you a “Paul” to help you grow biblically and spiritually, someone who will walk with you in your growth. You don’t grow without being pushed, just like our muscles or our physical endurance doesn’t improve without being pushed beyond their current limits.
Jesus wants us to have a great understanding of scripture because He wants us to know Him, His commands, and who we are to Him. In John 5:39, we read where He got up in the Pharisees' faces because they were using scripture as judgment for others and righteousness for themselves. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me"
I found this statement commenting on John 5:39 which we need to remember. "The study of Scripture does not by itself impart life. The Scriptures rather bear witness to the One who gives life, namely, Jesus. Consequently, the study of the Bible ought to result in genuine faith in Jesus, followed by obedient action and transformed lives, not merely acquisition of Bible knowledge."
So what was the “mystery” Paul was referring to that I mentioned earlier? Jesus! God spoke through the prophets to share what the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah, would look like, though the prophecies were disregarded most by those who should have seen them. For us, who have the entirety of His word, we can look at scripture and wonder how they missed it.
What we have to remember is that many today still disregard Jesus, along with the scripture He fulfilled and pronounced, because they don’t see the point to the whole thing. A “good life” is enough. Good over bad. Love all you can. By themselves, those statements are noble goals. Without Jesus, they are just deeds.
But God has defined good and we can’t meet that standard without Him. And while we sinned and rebelled against Jesus, He surrendered to the cross (Romans 5:8). The crucifixion is a fruitless tale of sacrifice without the truth of Jesus and the resurrection is mythology without the eyewitness evidence and life change that took place afterward.
Our journey through scripture will have its challenges, but the plain things will be the main things and the main things will be the plain things. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6–7)