A New Way to Read the Bible
I have two things going against me when it comes to reading the Bible. The first is that I never had to study much in school. I’d write down the notes the teacher put on the chalk board or the overhead projector, and I’d read. I actually didn’t do that much reading of text books – usually only what was required for the homework. Consequently, I never took notes out of a book. The second thing is that I read a lot of novels growing up, and novels aren’t books you study too much (or, at least, they weren’t books that I ever studied too much). I read something through, whatever soaks into my brain soaks in, and that’s it.
The Bible, however, is a different beast altogether. You have to study it. You have to pay attention to it. Yes, there are parts that read like a novel (the life of David comes to mind), and there are parts that are very obvious (Jesus spells out the meaning of many of His parables), but you can’t get by simply on that. Much of the text can be quite repetitive and seemingly obvious, and this induces one to start to skim. “Yes, God is mad at Israel again here for idol worship, He’s threatening them again, yadda, yadda, yadda.” For someone like me, skimming is exactly what starts to occur, but there are gems buried there that one misses when reading like that. When you start to glaze over, you forget that there is an awesome entity here trying desperately to tell you something important. You miss the subtler things, like when God is speaking of Israel as an adulterer. It is very easy to keep the surrounding tone of anger instead of picking up on the switch to the tone of a hurt, pleading husband. The Bible is much too meaty to read like a novel, and much more valuable than any homework you had in school.
I kept reading it like I had read everything else, though. I knew it wasn’t quite sufficient, but what was I to do? I had never taught myself this kind of stuff. And besides, I figured if I missed something this time around, I’d pick it up on another reading. No prob.
I’d considered myself in the “still a beginner” phase of Christianity for a long time. After all, that’s where we all start, and it never occurred to me that I was moving out of it. Because of this, how much real Bible knowledge I had wasn’t always of utmost importance to me. I couldn’t quote or apply a lot of passages from scripture, but that was OK. A child learning multiplication doesn’t worry so much that he doesn’t know calculus yet.
But I was having my quiet time a while back when I had a realization: I am going to have to teach someday. I’m not a beginner anymore. Someday I’m going to have to start passing this stuff along. Maybe it will be as a group leader of some sort – maybe it will just be mentoring another beginner Christian. Maybe I’ll have a wife and kids someday, and as the man, the responsibility of my family’s spirituality will rest on my shoulders. Some day, I will have to teach.
That realization gave me a kick in the pants that I really needed to actually study more. But how? It had been on my mind lately anyway. There had been a message at church about a way to study, and I had read about it again in a book my small group was reading. I wasn’t quite satisfied with any of those methods, though. But God doesn’t give up. That realization – the one that convinced me the most of my need for study – also provided the means by which I could get more out of the Bible. Trying to convince me of what I needed from the Bible wasn’t motivation enough. If I was reading for me, I could convince myself of all sorts of ways to cut corners since it only affected me. I had to know that I was also reading the Bible for others. If I slack off and it only affects me, well, that’s my problem, but I can’t take that attitude with others. If I’m reading for me, I can skim over a chapter and tell myself that I know it. If I read it with the attitude that I have to not just know it, but teach it to someone else, then I’d better really have it. And that’s how I can read it now. I can take notes not of what I want to remember, but of what I think I should tell someone else. And in preparing for someone else, I improve on what I get as well.
I just started, so I don’t think I’m as affective as I could be (is anyone ever?), but I feel like I’m a lot closer than I was. I like this. I don’t feel like I’m taking the easy way out or reading just to say I’ve read. It’s more work, but it’s better. This feels a lot more right. Thank God.
The Bible, however, is a different beast altogether. You have to study it. You have to pay attention to it. Yes, there are parts that read like a novel (the life of David comes to mind), and there are parts that are very obvious (Jesus spells out the meaning of many of His parables), but you can’t get by simply on that. Much of the text can be quite repetitive and seemingly obvious, and this induces one to start to skim. “Yes, God is mad at Israel again here for idol worship, He’s threatening them again, yadda, yadda, yadda.” For someone like me, skimming is exactly what starts to occur, but there are gems buried there that one misses when reading like that. When you start to glaze over, you forget that there is an awesome entity here trying desperately to tell you something important. You miss the subtler things, like when God is speaking of Israel as an adulterer. It is very easy to keep the surrounding tone of anger instead of picking up on the switch to the tone of a hurt, pleading husband. The Bible is much too meaty to read like a novel, and much more valuable than any homework you had in school.
I kept reading it like I had read everything else, though. I knew it wasn’t quite sufficient, but what was I to do? I had never taught myself this kind of stuff. And besides, I figured if I missed something this time around, I’d pick it up on another reading. No prob.
I’d considered myself in the “still a beginner” phase of Christianity for a long time. After all, that’s where we all start, and it never occurred to me that I was moving out of it. Because of this, how much real Bible knowledge I had wasn’t always of utmost importance to me. I couldn’t quote or apply a lot of passages from scripture, but that was OK. A child learning multiplication doesn’t worry so much that he doesn’t know calculus yet.
But I was having my quiet time a while back when I had a realization: I am going to have to teach someday. I’m not a beginner anymore. Someday I’m going to have to start passing this stuff along. Maybe it will be as a group leader of some sort – maybe it will just be mentoring another beginner Christian. Maybe I’ll have a wife and kids someday, and as the man, the responsibility of my family’s spirituality will rest on my shoulders. Some day, I will have to teach.
That realization gave me a kick in the pants that I really needed to actually study more. But how? It had been on my mind lately anyway. There had been a message at church about a way to study, and I had read about it again in a book my small group was reading. I wasn’t quite satisfied with any of those methods, though. But God doesn’t give up. That realization – the one that convinced me the most of my need for study – also provided the means by which I could get more out of the Bible. Trying to convince me of what I needed from the Bible wasn’t motivation enough. If I was reading for me, I could convince myself of all sorts of ways to cut corners since it only affected me. I had to know that I was also reading the Bible for others. If I slack off and it only affects me, well, that’s my problem, but I can’t take that attitude with others. If I’m reading for me, I can skim over a chapter and tell myself that I know it. If I read it with the attitude that I have to not just know it, but teach it to someone else, then I’d better really have it. And that’s how I can read it now. I can take notes not of what I want to remember, but of what I think I should tell someone else. And in preparing for someone else, I improve on what I get as well.
I just started, so I don’t think I’m as affective as I could be (is anyone ever?), but I feel like I’m a lot closer than I was. I like this. I don’t feel like I’m taking the easy way out or reading just to say I’ve read. It’s more work, but it’s better. This feels a lot more right. Thank God.
posted by jblee at 5:58 PM
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