Step One In Bible Reading
He must enlighten our minds, elevate and direct our thoughts, quicken our affections, move our wills, and thereby enable our understandings, if we are to apprehend spiritual things. A.W. Pink
READING requires time and concentration. The Bible is a book created by its Creator to be read. Yet, we live in a society where technology has robbed us of the patience needed to purposefully read. We read books with the same excitement we have when we wake up for work in the morning or the same patience we have when we wait in traffic. Our ability to focus in reading is used to skim for the critical moments. Can it be that so many words present us with thoughts that are too heavy for us?
We cannot learn the things of God without understanding what we read.
The most interesting books have tipped-toed into our televisions. Why read the Bible when technology produces a bootleg revelation? More people have watched Moses’ animated Exodus by Dreamworks than those who have sat and read Exodus. More people find visual adaptations of the Bible more stimulating and conversation inducing than the actual Gospels. How is it that the Bible is more interesting on screen than in the book itself? A.W. Pink shares a simple answer with us, “God’s word is made up of words, yet they convey nothing to us while they remain unintelligible.” We cannot learn the things of God without understanding what we read.
I hope to prove myself as a trustworthy teacher of the Scriptures. But, understand me, the Bible is a book that can defend itself. St. Augustine of Hippo boldly illustrated, “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.
Anyone who has ever given a genuine effort to understand the Bible has tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord because He promised, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened (Matt. 7).” The Bible holds immense value and importance to us, because it will reveal the person and character and tendencies of God. The God to whom the reader will know in due course, when we understand it as clearly as we see the sun in a cloudless sky.
Phillip questioned the Ethiopian in Acts, “Do you understand what you’re reading? And the Ethiopian replied with a childlike gasp, “How can I understand unless someone teaches?” The first step to understanding the Bible is to understand the blueprint of the Bible. There is a duality within the Bible. On one hand, it is a book that must be read like any other book. Open it and start in a chronological order. On the other hand, because it is a spiritual book, its meaning can only be given through a spiritual avenue. That is why the Bible is self-described as obvious to those who spiritually discern its content (1 Cor. 2). You can achieve a spiritual discernment of the Bible through desire and humility and prayer. Again, ask the Lord to open the door of understanding as you prepare to read.
If you apply this method, the Lord will wring the Bible and it will drip with Life into your life. If not, you will be categorized as the one who is blind because he won’t see, not because he can’t see. What use can we make of that which is unintelligible to us? Reading requires discipline of the body and mind. May the Holy Spirit make plain to us, the words of life!
“Only when there is honesty of soul and spirituality of heart will there be clearness of vision to perceive the Truth; only then will the mind be capable of discerning the full import of what is read, and understand not only the bare meaning of its words, but the sentiments they are designed to convey, and a suitable response be made by us.”
