to a wound actually stops bleeding, and theory applied to life changes living. I suspect that the word application won out, therefore, because it spoke of actually accomplishing something through preaching rather than merely informing others about the possibility of doing so. To improve the text is to make it useful to the listener—if he or she cares to take advantage of it. To explain the uses to which a passage may be put, again, does not mean that one induces the listener to actually so use it.