What on earth is a hermeneut? A spongy fruit from Italy? A hopping beetle from the land down under? To me it sounds like a vertically-challenged alien from another world.

Of all people, this word came from the mouth of theologian and scholar, John S. Feinberg in Cracking Old Testament Codes, page 65. I know what hermeneutics means. It's the science of Bible interpretation. One's "hermeneutics" are the tools he uses to study and understand the Bible.

But this is the first time I've heard someone use the term to refer to a person. I checked five dictionaries and two classic encyclopedias and they don't carry it either. But I guess that's how words start. Somebody uses it and if it catches, it should show up in the next year edition of Merriam-Webster.

But here's a better question: Are you a diligent hermeneut? Last time you read the Bible did you seek to understand what the author meant at the time he wrote it, so you can accurately apply it today? Did you seek to find what God is trying to say through that text that you may know Him?

Don't just be a hermeneut. Be a diligent one.

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15).