Emotional & Experience: 

The most common interpretive style prevalent today is the emotional / experiential type of reading based subjectively on one’s emotions and life experiences.

Many heretical groups place personal experience above proper hermeneutics in their interpretation of Biblical truth.

People who use this method of interpretation will say things like, “These scriptures mean this because I feel this way when I read them,” or they would say, “These scriptures mean this because I have experienced something like this before.”

The problem with this approach is that human experiences are limited, and our emotions flow from a heart that is deceitful and full of evil.

Ecclesiastes 9:3 (NKJV)

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?

(See also Proverbs 28:26 and Mark 7:20-23)

This is why we must not interpret the Bible by our emotions and experiences; instead, we must interpret our feelings and experiences by the Bible.

Our experiences should primarily be informed by a correct interpretation of Scripture and not the other way around.

One’s experience is always subject to change and is highly influenced by personal retrospections, feelings, and opinions.   On the other hand, God’s word is accurate and authoritative and is something that never changes.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.