When people feel stuck in a rut of application—where their application of every passage sounds the same—my first bit of advice is to remember that application involves more than doing. But then my second instruction is to reflect on application’s second direction.
The Two Directions
Application can go in two directions: inward and outward.
Commonly, when people think about application, they think only about inward application: How will this text impact me? (And specifically, people tend to think of application as “according to this text, what must I do?”) Such inward application is good and proper. We ought to be personally impacted by the Scripture on a regular basis. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor (Matt 22:36-40). Everything hangs on this, and our study of the Bible ought to sharpen and improve our own love for both God and neighbor.
So I would never argue against personal (what I call “inward”) application. But when your application loses steam and rehashes all the same things over time, you’ll be greatly helped by considering application’s second direction as well.
Outward application is all about how I can help others to change. How I can be an agent of influence. How I can obey Jesus’ Great Commission to make disciples (Matt 28:18-20).
What Outward Application is Not
Outward application is not about sticking your nose into other people’s business. It’s not about being the sin police. It’s not about correcting everyone and everything around you.
The purpose of outward application is not to ask others to do things you won’t do yourself. Outward application without inward application is hypocrisy.
And by all means, outward application is not about picking fights, hunting for problems, or criticizing with gusto. Outward application is not about taking over responsibility for other people’s choices; “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it” (Prov 9:12).
What Outward Application is
Outward application is about honoring God in the various positions of authority he has given you. Outward application is about growing as a person of influence. Outward application is about considering others more highly than yourself, and helping others to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Outward application can take the form of effective evangelism, sensible apologetics, or wise mentorship.
Paul applies the Scriptures outwardly when he commands fathers to “not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). An overbearing father and an absent dad are both failing to apply the Scripture in an outward direction—regardless of whether that man has attained a high degree of personal godliness or church office.
In addition to such instruction for parenting, potential outward applications include winning a husband (1 Peter 3:1-2), beautifying a wife (Eph 5:25-28), training younger women (Titus 2:4-5), leaving someone to God’s vengeance (Rom 12:18-21), inspiring others to glorify God (1 Peter 2:11-12, Matt 5:16), and entrusting faithful servants with the gospel (2 Tim 2:1-2).
Even missional prayers (Eph 6:18-20) and vibrant singing (Col 3:16) could be ways to apply the Bible in an outward direction.
This does not exhaust the options, but gives only a sampling of directly outward commands in the Scriptures. Many passages could be applied in similar ways.
Conclusion
In western societies that value personal freedoms, we can easily get into a rut when it comes to applying the Bible. We have abundant concern for individual holiness and godliness and want to make sure we are walking in personal relationship with our God.
The challenge is to not forget application’s second direction, and move beyond ourselves to help others. We’ve been saved into a new kingdom, a new community. And King Jesus gives every one of us opportunities to influence others and minister his grace to them. And make no mistake: He will hold us accountable for how effectively we have served and discipled the people he’s entrusted to us. There’s a whole parable to that effect.
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