How best to understand Biblical application? It is important to draw a distinction between remedial application and constructive application. Remedial application is the form that application often takes in our churches today. Using this approach we come to recognize something we are doing wrong. This sort of application urges us to stop doing what we shouldn’t be doing or to begin doing what we should be doing. In other words, after preaching on an Old Testament text, the preacher might urge the congregation to “Go, thou, and do likewise!” or “Go, thou, and don’t do likewise!” Such application is sometimes referred to as the takeaway, and it often operates by instructing the hearers in steps that can be taken this week to begin to rectify a particular situation. The instruction may provide specific action points intended to correct harmful behaviors, adjust habits or restore relationships. Remedial application can be important and cannot be neglected, but it is only the beginning. We have to be engaged in doing more than correcting wrong behavior or thinking. That is where what is called constructive application comes in.
Constructive application involves more than doing what is right; it puts us on a path of thinking what is right. It involves how we think about ourselves, about the world around us and, most importantly, about God. More than action points that can be undertaken this week, these thinking points provide the basis for a lifetime of inner resources that will help us respond well to situations that we may face tomorrow, next month or twenty years down the road.
Remedial application confronts our failures and inadequacies. Constructive application fills our reservoirs of understanding so we have something to draw on throughout life. Remedial application is like paying the outstanding bills in a financial crisis. Constructive application is like contributing to a savings account so financial crisis in the future can be avoided. The former perpetuates living hand to mouth; the latter builds financial security. Ideally, our spiritual lives should grow toward maturity by being securely anchored, fed by the deep reservoir of knowledge of God that his Word supplies. We do not want to be people who only survive hand to mouth spiritually. So when we look to Scripture for application, we should turn our attention to the long-term constructive application it offers, which can shape beliefs for a lifetime and not just those ‘to do’ things that are immediately in front of us.