Reading the Bible Properly
In more recent times I have found myself reflecting on how often we put the cart before the horse in our relationship with God. There have so often been times when we have gone along to church looking for a word or encouragement that will be enough to get us through that particular problem or challenge, only until the next one comes along, and then we need a word to help us with that one. We can also read the Bible with that attitude as well, just looking to find something that will encourage us with a specific problem or situation. In saying this, I am not denying the fact that God speaks to us in all manner of different times and seasons through His Word, and of course, we will always find encouragements that speak into our specific trial or situation in life, particularly for instance, when we read the Book of Psalms. But it becomes problematic when we only ever read Scripture in that way - looking for a word or encouragement to help us in our particular circumstances rather than looking to meet personally with the One who is the Word!
Do we read our Bibles like a self-help book to find encouragement to help us through a difficult situation - or do we read the Bible because we want to meet with Jesus Christ? What we believe and understand about God matters — a shallow, superficial faith is not going to help you when all hell breaks loose. A sure sign of spiritual maturity is when we no longer need to be spoon-fed truth but actively seek it out for ourselves. Our desire should be for a deeper revelation of who God is! In the longest Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119, the whole Psalm is devoted to the Law of God and how the Psalmist enthuses: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Ps 119:97) The American theologian William Plumer commenting on this part of the Psalm observes:
“Through divine grace, God’s people may have a heaven upon earth. They have tasted and so know the preciousness of Scripture. Communion with God in His Word and ordinances is not equal to communion with God in heaven, but it is like it. Heavenly-mindedness is heaven anticipated. Let each one diligently study God’s Word. It gives a knowledge true and influential. What dying saint ever deplored that he had too assiduously studied it?” [1]
Rather than looking for a short-term word to “fix our current problem” I have always found that the answer is to be taken out of myself and all my worries and cares for a moment and just marvel at how big and awesome God is. This leads me to contemplate God’s great plan for my redemption, what it cost Him when He sent His Son to the Cross for me, and the fact that He had planned my salvation from before the beginning of the world.
As this truth sinks in, you start to realise how transitory life is and how even the worst of problems and disasters are only momentary in light of the glorious eternity that we are promised to spend with Christ. We need God’s Word and we need to be dwelling in the Word, if we are not getting to know God through His word “the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15) then how are we supposed to have a real relationship with Him? The idea that we can know God and have a relationship with Him without the Scriptures is an idea that the contemporary American theologian John Frame argues strongly against:
“People often claim to have a personal relationship with Christ, while being uncertain about the role of Scripture in that relationship. But the relationship that Christ has established with His people is a covenant relationship and therefore a verbal relationship, among other things. Jesus’ words, today, are found only in Scripture. So if we are to have a covenant relationship with Jesus, we must acknowledge Scripture as His Word. No Scripture, no Lord. No Scripture, no Christ. And no Scripture, no salvation.” [2]
But this is where it all goes wrong, many people now do not belong to churches that teach sound doctrine and prioritise Bible teaching and prefer instead to attend churches that are entertaining and have good facilities and children’s work. This naturally leads to a shallow faith and an ambiguous understanding of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps based on a few coffee mug Bible verses and experiences that they have had over the years at Christian conferences. The alarming reality now is that most church-going Christians could not even articulate the biblical Gospel, let alone share the Gospel with the lost.
This alarming modern trend has been rather bluntly pointed out by the American preacher Voddie Baucham: “The modern church is producing passionate people with empty heads who love the Jesus they don’t know very well.” [3]
The truth is that anyone can pick up a Bible and make it say what they want it to say, as the satirical phrase goes: “I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.” Without a deeper understanding of scripture which comes from devoting meaningful time to reading and studying the Word of God, we can very easily misinterpret and misapply it. This is why the church needs mature Christians to assist in helping other Christians in their understanding of the Word. We see this in the book of Acts when Priscilla and Aquilla took Apollos to one side to explain the Gospel more accurately to him (see Acts 18:26). But when church leaders persistently misinterpret and misapply the public teaching of Scripture, then we have a serious problem, since they are complicit in spreading false teaching and will be answerable to God for this.
Please understand that my comments are not motivated by any desire to be critical, but if we were to consider this from another perspective for a moment: think back to a time in your life when someone said something slanderous or untrue about you, how did you feel about it? In that situation, your anger would have been justified because you were misrepresented and made to look bad and the truth about you was not upheld which led to a distorted view of your character. So likewise, when we do not take biblical truth seriously we can so easily misrepresent God by distorting His Word. How much worse is that than just a fallen human being misrepresented? Doesn’t God have the right to self-expression, and the freedom to determine His own representation? Our charge is to be faithful to that and not our own interpretation of what we would like the Word of God to say or how we would like God’s character to be.
When we read and study Scripture properly, we will learn the truth about the character and attributes of God, our fallen sinfulness and inability to ever please a perfectly righteous God. We will also read about how God in His great mercy sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to pay the punishment for our sin and rebellion against God and through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, brings the sinner to repentance and faith and into an eternal relationship with God. As we read and study the promises of God’s word, we also learn about how following Christ faithfully brings inner transformation in our lives - the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, changing us to become more like Christ. Then there is the promise of eternal life, the new heaven and the new earth, the reality of the Lord Jesus’ bodily return and the final resurrection of the dead and the eternal state. All of this is laid out for us in Scripture, there is everything that we need for salvation, to grow deeper in our walk with the Lord as we grow to know Him and love Him deeper and to be able to look forward to the promises that we have in Christ.
Footnotes:
[1] William S. Plumer “Psalms” (Banner of Truth, 2016) p1064
[2] John M. Frame “The Doctrine of the Word of God” (P&R Publishing Company 2010) p212
[3] Original source of quote unknown