A couple months ago I wrote an article titled, No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible. I received quite a basket of mixed feedback, so I thought it beneficial to follow-up and bring clarity where I may have failed to before.
This is an open letter. Quite long, to be honest. But necessary for clarifying a few things I deeply believe. The letter is separated into seven sections. Feel free to skip ahead to whatever interests you most by clicking on the heading below:
- Summarizing No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible
- “What a title!!??”
- Intentional Blogging
- Relational vs. Intellectual, and an “ever-evolving message”
- The Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Inspiration of Scripture
- Our Problem with Scripture in 2017
- What I Believe about the Bible in 18 Statements
Summarizing No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible
The subtitle of the post is “rediscovering God’s intent for Scripture.” I began the post with the question, “Do you have to read the Bible to know God?”
I went on to explain how in a culture that worships information, such as ours, relational dynamics will always be left out of the pursuit of Truth. We like the easily explainable, black and white clear approach to understanding things. But faith in God, knowing Him, is not an intellectual exercise. It is relationship.
Sometimes we approach the Bible merely for what we glean from it intellectually and miss the Person in it that we should be getting to know. I shared a brief example of my own journey in seeking to establish good disciplines of studying and memorizing the Bible because that is what I understood good disciples of Christ to do. However, as life went on and all I had was intellectual knowledge of the Bible and not a deep relationship with God, I began getting disillusioned with His Word and Christianity.
I would have probably given up on God had I not known from my own knowledge of Scripture that Jesus spoke of something more than just knowledge. He spoke of eternal life (relationship with God) as being the water that quenches our thirst.
After sharing that story, I stepped back a bit and briefly rehearsed how I, and we in general as a culture, got to where we are in our approach to Scripture. With the don of the printing press, the emphasis went from hearing and doing God’s Word to studying and knowing it. It moved from relational to intellectual.
Jesus warns against approaching the Scriptures this way in John 5:39 when He said, “You search the Scriptures thinking that in them you have eternal life.” The idea is that the Jews were busy getting acquainted with the Torah and missing the Person it led them to. Jesus: the only one through which we can receive eternal life.
I go on to discuss how God’s Word lives. It is not simply black ink on white paper. God is bigger than the Bible. Simply knowing God academically does not bring eternal life. Knowing Him experientially (relationally) does (John 8 brings this out). And you can experience Him outside the Bible. As we come to know Jesus, He places His Spirit within us (Eph. 1:13-14, Acts 1:8, 2Tim 1:14, Ro. 5:5 & 8:11). His Word lives in us (Jer. 31:33-34), so we don’t cling to the Bible as if God can’t guide us unless we’re constantly reading it (Ro. 8:15-16, 2Co. 1:22).
But (and here I made the important paradigm shift), if we really want to know God and have relationship with Him, why wouldn’t we read the Bible?
After all, the Bible is His message of His design and love for us. He gave it (and preserved it) through writing. What an act of love on His behalf! Wouldn’t it be a loving response to take the time to read it and know it? As we do, we get to know Him even deeper.
I then shared how Christ said His word was the bread of life, and invited us to eat it (John 6). In other words, believe Him and obey Him. It gives life. Furthermore, when told His family had come to see Him, Jesus said those who hear the Word of God and do it, they are His family.
If we want to be a part of Christ’s family, if we want to truly know God, we will take time to hear His Word, and we will respond by doing what He says.
Jesus gave us His Spirit so that we could grow in deeper knowledge of Truth. He said the Spirit will guide us into all Truth (John 14:26 & 16:13), implying there was more to come. He also said the Spirit will bring to remembrance all that he had said, implying that what he said will never be nullified or irrelevant. Because of this, I believe more and more that if we want to truly be close to God, we will also be close to His Scriptures.
(I didn’t say this in the original post, but what I meant by this section was for us to know it is God’s Spirit revealing deeper levels of Truth to us, we must know the message He put into writing for us.)
However, today we are not stretched to think abstractly. We aren’t forced to wrestle with deep concepts and so reading the Bible feels incredibly laborious. Unfortunately, then, we tend to neglect it. So, I closed out the article by giving five tips for developing a life-giving habit of hearing and listening to God through the Bible.
“What a title!!??”
I have received numerous responses to the post and have noticed in general people responding fall into one of two categories: those who really did not like the title, and those who did.
From the feedback, the biggest concern people have with the post has to do with the title. They feel it minimizes Scripture and opens the door for people to decide they don’t have to live by it. They are afraid people may read certain statements within the post through “No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible” and take it as license to ignore what Scripture says.
On the other hand, people have told me the title signified to them that maybe someone else identified with their struggle. Hearing how God is bigger than the Bible and that Christianity is about much more than making sure they read their Bible every day freed them to see Scripture for what it is. One person told me he had pretty much quit reading Scripture until he read my post. It felt refreshing to him, and gave him renewed desire to read it because he saw again how the Bible is about deepening relationship with God.
As best as I can tell, if I had titled it differently, many people would not have much of a problem with the post. At the same time, it seems perhaps those who needed to read it most would not have opened the article had it been titled differently. So, I find myself a bit perplexed and puzzled.
Undermining Scripture
It shook me up to see someone saying I “circumvented the authority of Scripture by offering another, more sanctified approach to knowing God. . .” This person said I appeal for people not to pursue God through His Word, but through relationship. He suggested the error in that is that how we feel about God overrides what He has clearly revealed about Himself through His Word.
The reason this shocked me was because I say the exact opposite. I do not “offer a more sanctified approach.” My appeal is that if we really want to know God, why wouldn’t we read the Bible? Indeed, the Bible is God’s Word, His plan and design clearly written for us.
I did, however, suggest our interaction with Scripture should be relational because true spirituality is a relationship with God. Not merely an academic exercise with Him. God didn’t give His Word in written form simply so we can memorize and study it in the Greek and flaunt it over others. He gave it so we can know Him relationally. And I built my case from Scripture. I did not “circumvent” the Bible’s authority. I submitted to it. If you want to debate with me, you must also wrestle with the Scriptures.
I care deeply about God’s Word and being faithful to it. There are many, even within the Church, that would like to make it softer, reinterpret it, or disregard it all together. That concerns me. The fact that many in my generation don’t read the Bible daily burdens me because I wonder how long we can continue this way and still know God. His message is so deep with implications far beyond the understanding of the wisest man who ever lived. How can we make a habit of not digging into His Word and still have a relationship with Him?
What motivated me to write the article was a desire for my readers to see the Scriptures how God intended them to be seen: the way we come to know Him fully.
“So… why the title?”
Now, maybe you’re wondering why I chose the title I did if I wanted people to realize the importance of reading the Bible? Why “no, you don’t have to” when really I’m saying you should? The answer is simple: I was not writing to people who already value the Scriptures as an avenue for deep relationship with God.
Some people limit God to the Bible. They say God only speaks to us through the Scripture. But is that in harmony with God’s Word?
It was through my study of the Bible I discovered God is bigger than the Bible and wants to interact with me in a fuller, relational level. Not just an intellectual level. He gave us His Spirit as our Comforter and Guide (John 15:26 & 16:13). Bible reading, prayer—living in general—is to be a relational interaction with God through His Holy Spirit.
There is an increasing number of millennials (and maybe others, I’ve just been noticing the millennials) who have become disillusioned with people who limit God to the Bible. The reason they are disillusioned is because those people seem to have a better relationship with the canon then they do Jesus. They know Scripture like crazy, but don’t seem to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Especially, the fruit of love, patience, and long-suffering.
“Do I really have to read the Bible every day? Is that what Christianity is all about?”
“Do I have to read the Bible to know God? Isn’t He bigger than a book?”
These are the questions I hear many millennials asking. While the conclusions may not always be healthy, because Scripture shows God is indeed bigger than a book and He does speak to us outside the Bible, millennials are slowly setting the Bible aside. Not so much out of rebellion, but disillusionment.
We only further alienate struggling people when we emphasize the importance of “being in the Word” without gently, and understandingly showing them the Person behind it. Giving the bible preeminence with or over Jesus does not cultivate a love for God’s Word. It cultivates a subtle contempt for it.
I believe it is, in part, because of hyper fundamentalists and their overemphasis on the Bible (the book) and spiritual disciplines that we now have so many people quietly setting it aside. The other part of it is that there are some real dangerous, yet influential teachings infiltrating churches which truly do circumvent Scripture and undermine the authority of God’s Word.
But if we emphasize Scripture primarily because we fear people will follow such false teachings, we end up accidentally teaching something false, ourselves. When we detach the Scriptures from the Person of Its message, we have lost the message.
It is my opinion that a better route to cultivating an appreciation and honor for God’s Word is to first and (always) primarily lead people to knowing God Himself. Giving people a picture of who God is and demonstrating to them how He interacts causes others to want to know His message. It makes them want to have relationship with Him.
So, instead of saying “You need to read the Bible” out of fearing people will neglect it, I said “No, you don’t have to read the Bible” because you really don’t HAVE to read it for God to reveal Himself to you. If you want to know Him fully is another question. And that’s what I sought to address throughout the entirety of the article.
Now I will make a confession: I personally regret using such a title.
I used it because I was speaking directly to those who are disillusioned with Scripture and asking if they have to read the Bible to know God. Based on some of the feedback, I doubt they would have opened an article phrased as a question: “Do you have to read the Bible?” Neither would they have opened an article titled, “Why the Bible is important for our relationship with God” or something along those lines. Even though I could have said the same things I did in the article, they wouldn’t have bothered to click-through and read because they would have assumed “Oh, yes. I know I must read the Bible. I’ve heard it all before,” and moved on.
Instead, something new was presented. Actually, it’s not new at all.[1] Simply presented in a new way.
Here’s the deal, though: I feel I unnecessarily caused confusion to many of my readers who are not disillusioned with the Bible and not asking this question. And I believe my title is the primary reason for that confusion.
I’m not sure how else I could have titled it to capture the attention of those disillusioned while not offending those who aren’t. Would having emphasized “No, You Don’t HAVE to Read the Bible” been enough to clue people in that I wasn’t just chucking God’s Word out the door? Or maybe “Why Reading the Bible Is More Than Just Reading”? Would that have brought the clarity I’m looking for?
(What do you think? Are there ideas you have for how I could have better titled the post? Share them with me in the comments.)
Intentional Blogging
Maybe you are wondering why I worry about offending those disillusioned. “Just speak truth. If they don’t want to hear it, that’s their fault.”
I agree that if we worry so much about not offending people we run the risk of misrepresenting Truth. There is also no guarantee that just because we speak a language that connects with others they will respond positively.
However, if you notice, I didn’t speak in such a way as to not offend anyone. Many were offended, and I am sorry for that. Especially, because I feel it was unnecessary. It would tear me apart to discover my article caused someone to question the Bible or conclude it wasn’t important. I could have done better. But I ran the risk of offending those who love reading the Bible (something I deeply rejoice in) because I was not trying to connect with them. I was trying to connect with those disillusioned with church, faith, and other Christians.
Interestingly, Jesus didn’t just “speak truth” without caring for those He was discipling. He regularly tailored His message to whomever He spoke. To sinners, His message was a gentle, gracious call to repentance. He told them about how much the Father loved them. He forgave their sins, healed their sickness and commissioned them to “go and sin no more.” To the Pharisees, His message was a short, firm rebuke. They should have known better. There was very little grace in His tone toward them. He didn’t tell them of the Father’s love because they didn’t realize their need for His love. They were good in their own eyes and they assumed the Father thought so as well.
A classic example of Jesus packaging His message uniquely for those he spoke with is when he met the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.
The writers of the Gospels all shared the same message, but tailored it specifically to those they wrote to. Paul did this as well. And Peter. We have biblical precedent for being careful to communicate our message appropriately depending on who we are trying to reach.
When I first started blogging, I basically shot at random as to what I wrote about. I wanted to write, wanted to influence people for Christ, but didn’t know what to write until I read somewhere that if you’re just starting in writing, write your story. That clicked with me.
So, one day I sat down and wrote out the major life-shaping events in my story I thought others would resonate with, and I began zeroing in on those.
- Father-son relationships
- Sexual addiction
- Frustrations with church
- Dating
While I sometimes deviate and write on something simply because I am passionate about it, I mainly focus my writing on the areas of my story that connect with others. I believe that is the beauty of our stories. God wants to speak through what He is doing in our lives.
I also learned that trying to hit a wide audience ensures you hit no one.
A better way to write is to narrow your focus. Get specific on who you are writing to. Write to them. Maybe others will also connect with it, but don’t worry about those who aren’t in your target audience.
So, along with jotting down my life-story, I created five reader profiles of the kind of people I am writing to so whenever I sit down and write, I am always writing to at least one of these five. Their profiles include gender, age, marriage status, economic level, background, life experiences, and most importantly, what they want in life and what they feel is preventing them from getting it.
While gender and economic status changes from profile to profile, the wants and frustrations are basically the same across all five. Here’s what they are:
My target audience wants to follow Christ. They want to be faithful to God. They want to influence others for Christ. They want to make a difference in their world. But, they feel held back. Either by church traditions, family culture, peers, or personal issues, they feel unable to draw deeper with Christ and faithfully follow Him. They are frustrated with religion. Desperate for authentic faith. They see right through religious politics and long for real love. They are tired of people stepping around white elephant issues and find it refreshing to meet someone who is willing to graciously talk about things too risky to verbalize in most settings.
It is my observation that many millennials fall into this category on some level. I never planned to have over seven thousand people reading my blog monthly. I get nervous standing in front of seventy, much less thinking of standing in front of seven thousand. Yet, that’s basically what I do every month. And they are not all Anabaptist. Some of them don’t even know what that means. They don’t all come from the same family background, church tradition, or even cultural heritage.
The fear with getting narrow in my focus was that not many people would connect or read. But it wasn’t until I got narrow in my focus, and intentional in the language I used to connect with those in my focus, that the blog took off.
Again, being popular was not the goal. I just wanted to reach people. I saw many young adults frustrated and disillusioned with church, and they seemed to be slowly slipping through the cracks without anyone to help them sort things through.
Writing for them wasn’t hard to do because I can easily connect with them.
There was a point in my life when I nearly turned away from God because of how I saw the Church acting. God seemed incredible! Jesus seemed irresistible. But His people seemed detestable. And I didn’t have the maturity, then, to extend grace for the brokenness of others.
What kept me pressing into God was that my parents demonstrated unconditional faith in Him. You need to understand: my Dad is a pastor. Has been all my life. What turned me off was how people treated him. Naturally, the stress they put him under wore on him and took him away from me. I saw God’s people competing with me for my Dad’s attention. People wanted church a certain way, but left Dad solely responsible for making it that way. Others wouldn’t do much to help.
(And if you’re reading this and have been shepherded by my father, I realize this may feel unfair. I am sorry. It’s just how it felt to me.)
All this to say, by the time I was sixteen years old, it appeared to me that people within the Church were more concerned about controlling others. They didn’t seem real concerned with faithfully following Christ in humility and brokenness. The choice was clear: either I gave up on God completely and walked away, or I lived as truly and wholeheartedly for Him as I could. It was all or nothing. And because my parents were choosing all, I decided to as well.
I spent a significant period of my life running away from church in the sense that I didn’t want to ever be a pastor or be involved with church-work. But I can’t get the Church of Christ out of my heart and mind. I suppose no one who takes Jesus seriously can.
There are ways the church is doing tremendous good. We could argue to a certain degree it is doing better now than the previous fifty years or so. But, there are also ways we are failing deeply.
One of the ways we are failing is that we are not moving toward people who struggle. If we do, it tends to be judgmentally. Not lovingly. We point out their problems (and certainly they have problems) before understanding why they feel the way they do. And this unnecessarily alienates them. They walk away. Instead of introspection and asking God to search us for where we may be handling things wrong, we simply throw our hands in the air and say, “they just don’t care about Truth.”
Hogwash!
Yes, some people will walk away no matter what. But many, if not most, are simply aching to be understood. They want to be mentored and discipled in Christ; not in some man-made doctrine.
These are the people I write for. I call us, millennials rediscovering faith. My desire is to help us sort through hard questions we face so we can become free from baggage in order to love vibrantly and make a difference for Christ in the world around us.
What I have found is many, even those who don’t necessarily resemble my “profiles,” connect with my writing. For whatever reason, God has seen fit to grant me this platform to speak from. I desire to do so faithfully for His honor and glory.
Relational vs. Intellectual, and an “ever-evolving message”
I have already addressed the title. Again, I feel the title caused unnecessary confusion and that I believe I could have titled it better, but am not exactly sure how. Refer to that section if you have an idea on a better title. I’d love to hear!
But the title wasn’t the only thing that confused people. There is a lot I did not say about the Bible in the post. The thrust of it was that we should interact with Scripture as a part of our relationship with God. Not as the only way to be a good Christian and hear from God. The article was never intended to be an exposé on everything Asher Witmer believes about the Bible. Rather, it was the first of many posts I plan to write on God’s Word and what it means to be faithful to it in the twenty-first century.
Let me clarify a couple things within the post, and then I’ll expound on a few things I did not address, that I probably should have.
First, when I say true faith in God is relational, not intellectual, I am not comparing equal dynamics.
I am essentially saying the same thing as true friendship is knowing a person, not their name. We all know just because we know someone’s name doesn’t mean we know the person. Even if we know how to say their name in the Greek, where they grew up and what their life-story is, if we have not had personal interaction with the person themselves, we do not know them.
Just as knowing a person includes intellectual aspects, so does knowing God. But it is so much more than an intellectual exercise.
I am afraid many of our churches are filled with people who have merely intellectual experiences with God, but have not personally met Jesus. They are not filled with His Spirit. They don’t know Him relationally, and aren’t even sure what I mean by that.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many within the church who do know Christ and are filled with His Spirit. I would hate for what I just said to cause someone to begin doubting whether they are filled with God’s Spirit when they truly are. If you have a desire to know God, to be drawing close to Him, then I am certain the Spirit of Christ is working in you.
However, if you resent discussing relationship versus intellectual interactions, if you feel threatened by the idea that walking with God includes much more than memorizing and studying, then I appeal to you to prayerfully evaluate where you have placed your faith. Have you truly been born of the Spirit? (John 3:8, Ro. 8:9-11) Relationship with God certainly includes the intellect, but it is an intellectual experience that is profoundly developed through a spiritual interaction with God Himself.
Secondly, I quoted Pastor Shane Hipps from his book Flickering Pixels, which is about how technology shapes our faith.
In the quote, he says “Jesus is pointing us to a God who keeps communicating an ever-evolving message. That is why the Spirit is given.”
Some have felt this is the most dangerous concept introduced in my post. I think they take Hipps to be alluding to the concept that Truth is relative, continually changing. What we understand as Truth today, may not be Truth tomorrow, or next year.
I certainly don’t know what all Hipps means by the statement. I appreciated the book, and was planning to write more later in the year on some of what he talks about. But I have also come to realize there are aspects of his theology and understanding of Scripture I don’t agree with, in which case I become hesitant about affirming what he says.
However, I prefer to take authors at face value. When I read something I disagree with, I disagree. When I read something I agree with, and is in harmony with Truth, I agree regardless of other areas where I feel the author errors (or other associations he may have). I could assume Hipps means certain things by what he says in the book, but they would be assumptions. Taking the book at face value, I found most of it profound and in harmony with God’s Word.
Having said that, if by saying “God keeps communicating an ever-evolving message” he is suggesting we can re-interpret Scripture to mean something different than what is historically understood throughout the Christian faith, I do not agree with the statement. But from my understanding of what he said in the book, I do not believe he is suggesting re-interpretation.
What I understand him to be saying, and what I agree with, is that God’s message speaks differently to different peoples. To ancient Israel, His message was about the promise of a new land flowing with milk and honey. A few generations later, His message was a stiff rebuke and a call to repentance lest they be destroyed. Those are two drastically different messages. We understand how they harmonize with each other when we understand the context. But still, God is saying something drastically different.
As I mentioned earlier, Jesus and Paul both spoke of the same Gospel, the same message of God, but their emphasis varied considerably. Jesus focused on the good news of the Kingdom of God at hand. A gospel located squarely in this world, even as it flows into the future and coming kingdom. Paul focused on the good news of Christ’s salvation and redemption from sin. It is a gospel that points us to the hope of the next life, even as it makes demands of us in this one.
An evolving message is not necessarily contradictory. Especially, God’s message. He cannot contradict Himself (2Tim. 2:13). A message is no less relevant or consistent when it changes its emphasis. These various aspects of God’s message are each acts in an unfolding divine drama in which He is reconciling the world to Himself.
Different cultural conditions shape the gospel. In Latin America, the gospel of Christ is understood largely as the promise of liberation from very real and very evil sociopolitical oppression. The ministry of Jesus and the message of God’s kingdom correspond to the Exodus event in which God freed the Israelites from slavery. In North America, however, the gospel is understood primarily as forgiveness of personal sin and the promise of eternal life.
Each of these views—and there are many others as well—presents a distinctly different message. They are inextricably linked to the particular social context from which they emerge. In a wealthy suburb of North America, the promise of liberation from political oppression has little meaning, while the assurance that one’s personal sins are forgiven may provide little comfort amid the life-threatening oppression of corrupt dictatorships in Latin America.
When we claim the gospel message is unchanging, we risk boasting a kind of omniscience in which we presume to know the totality of God’s mysteries and intentions. We presume to have discovered the one simple and unchanging message for all times and places, as if we somehow represent all of humanity past, present, and future. In the process, the Holy Spirit is made irrelevant and obsolete. (Flickering Pixels, Kindle Loc. 1522)
Within this context, I agree that God’s message evolves, that we understand His Word in new and deeper realities. How else does each generation manage to produce its own theologians, teachers, and authors? God’s Word is being understood in new contexts within new times. But again, what has been previously revealed is no less relevant or truthful. That is why it is important to evaluate modern understandings of Scripture with historical Christian theology.
God’s Word will never fade away. It will never be irrelevant and never lose its power. Perhaps a better way of saying it is how we interpret God’s message changes and evolves. We understand it differently depending on the generation and culture, and we must be humble about that. Therefore, we must rely daily on the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we seek to know Christ more and more.
The Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Inspiration of Scripture
As I mentioned above, there were several things I did not address in the original post and I probably should have.
In writing No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible, I had two main presuppositions that would have been good to talk about in the post. I’ve also realized when discussing the Bible, there is some confusion in our understanding of “the Word of God.” I’ll address the presuppositions and then delve into a look at what Scripture means when it says “the Word of God.”
Presupposition #1 – The Bible is inspired by God
I think some people read my title, and the parts of my post where I suggest God is bigger than the Bible, and assumed I was saying the Bible is not inspired by God. However, I wasn’t saying that at all.
I believe wholeheartedly the Holy Spirit inspired men of God to put His message into writing, as Peter told us. It was not a prophecy by the will of man, but the will of God through His Holy Spirit moving in men who personally witnessed the accounts described in Scripture (2 Pet. 1:18-21).
I believe the Bible is infallible (as in unfailing, reliable, and trustworthy) and profitable for doctrine, reproof, instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Through the Bible we can discern good and evil. We see God’s design for the world, for life, for relationships, for the Church, and ultimately His design for redemption. I confess I didn’t realize the inspiration of Scripture was up for discussion. I assumed most of my audience agreed on the authority of the Bible, but I can see how someone who didn’t already know could have wondered where I stood.
Again, I was not trying to defend the authority of Scripture in the post. I would have written quite differently if that was the goal. I was trying to connect us back with the Person of Scripture and how reading the Bible the most important place to start in deepening our relationship with God.
Presupposition #2 – The Holy Spirit Speaks Outside of the Bible
I was not trying to lift the Holy Spirit above the Scriptures through the article. Some people emphasize the Bible and knowing the Scriptures and neglect the Holy Spirit. Others emphasize the Holy Spirit and Him speaking to us and neglect the role of Scripture in the Christians life. I wasn’t trying to do either. But I did presuppose the Spirit speaks to us in ways that cannot be referenced with a Bible verse.
The Holy Spirit is not limited to the Bible. It’s not as if He is merely a voice in a speaker (the Bible) and one can only hear the voice if he is near the speaker. The Spirit of God that hovered over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2), moves among us today speaking Truth and Life. See the book of Acts and how the Spirit “moved” and “worked” and “did” and “spoke” things.
When someone opens the Bible to read, the Spirit speaks into his ears, into his heart. But that does not mean the reader hears the Spirit—even if he memorized every word. Hearing the Spirit of God happens differently than reading the words of a book. And in the same way the Spirit speaks when we read the Bible, He also speaks when we don’t have our Bible with us, such as when we need to testify of the hope within us, or before judges in courts (1Pet. 3:15; Lk. 12:11-12).
I believe the Spirit of God moves among the earth and speaks to us regardless of whether we have the Bible in hand or not. Hearing the Spirit is something we must learn how to do.
“The Word of God”
There is a difference between the “Scriptures” and the “Word of God.” When we read in the Bible “the word of God,” “the word of the Lord,” “word,” “truth,” it is not necessarily talking about Scripture.
In the Old Testament, most times “the word of God” refers to a direct revelation from God. In the New Testament, it primarily refers to either truth incarnate (Jesus), or the Gospel message itself (which is all about Jesus). In fact, from what I have studied so far, in the New Testament it always refers to either Jesus or the Gospel.
Is the Bible the “Word of God”? Absolutely. It is the written account of Jesus Christ. It is the Gospel message written for us. So, indeed, the Bible is the Word of God.
But the Word of God is much more than words on a page. It’s much more than a message transcribed through languages and passed on from generation to generation. The Word of God is primarily manifested in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1). You take Jesus out of the picture, and you do not have the Word of God. You teach the doctrines of the Bible and withhold the person of Christ and you do not have the Word of God. That would be close to what Paul referred to as “changing the truth of God into a lie” (Ro. 1:25).
The Bible, the Scriptures, the canon—it is a medium through which God has revealed and preserved His Word to us on this earth. A medium. The Outer Word. And its only power is in leading us to Jesus (the Inner Word).
In fact, Peter goes on, after telling us the Scriptures were written by men of God moved of the Holy Spirit, to warn us of false teachers who will come among us. He says they will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves (2 Peter 2:1). Because of these false teachers, many will follow their unrestrained ways and the way of truth will be blasphemed (2 Peter 2:2).
On one hand, we have people always on the alert for those who undermine the authority of Scripture. In their passion for Truth to be upheld, they are ready to expose anyone who says things they feel contradicts Scripture.
On the other hand, I am growing increasingly more concerned with people who profess a “passion for truth,” but elevate other things above Jesus Christ. And we do this when we emphasize the need for spiritual disciplines above the need for a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that is precisely what Peter is warning of here. When we deny the Master who bought us, we have denied the very message of God. We have denied God Himself, and we are flirting with a false gospel.
Our Problem with Scripture in 2017
Our problem with Scripture in 2017 is that we have detached the Person of the Bible from the Bible itself. If we have not outright “denied” Him by worshipping the book, we are certainly neglecting the Master who bought us, the One who gives the message within the book. The One that message testifies of. And the more we neglect Him, the more certainly future generations will deny Him.
2 Timothy 3:15 tells us, “the sacred Scriptures are able to give wisdom for Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” The salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ; not in knowing the Bible inside and out. Obviously, someone who knows the Bible inside and out should have come to know Jesus Christ and have placed their faith in Him. But unfortunately, we tend to spend more time harping on people to be “in the Word” or spending an hour reading their Bible or memorizing passages or not letting their Bible sit on the floor or under a pile of other books, that we have emphasized the book above the Person.
We have incidentally worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator.
Without the Person of Scripture, the Bible becomes a book we use to better our own lives instead of a book that leads us to deeper worship of God. Christianity, then, becomes a religion for making my own life better, a religion for controlling my world and those within it.
I believe part of the reason people no longer see the significance of sticking close to the Scriptures is because we have unintentionally detached Jesus from the Bible. No one intended to detach Him. It happened naturally as false teachers snuck their way into the church and began shedding doubt on the authority and necessity of the Bible.
In reaction, we emphasized the Bible. And in our desperation not to lose hold of Scripture, we forgot to continue leading the younger generation ultimately back to Jesus. We assumed they understood the Word points to Him, and so we worked to get people “in the Word.”
But now we have a generation who doesn’t remember you can’t separate Jesus and the Bible. We have people who approach Scripture not for getting to know Christ, but for meeting the expectations of others. For making sure they are doing the right thing. They have developed a good lifestyle, but lack relationship with the One who truly transforms their hearts into living forth a godly lifestyle.
And when something unexplainable happens, when their formulaic approach to the Bible doesn’t work, they’re thrown for a loop. They don’t know what to do and end up slowly neglecting the Bible altogether, following their “unrestrained ways.”
Worship of the book above the Person does not cultivate a love for God’s Word, His design, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it cultivates a generationally compounding contempt for it.
When we deny the Master in our teachings, when we emphasize disciplines and lifestyle above relationship with Jesus Christ, we open the door to a generation who “follows the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority” (2 Peter 2:10).
David loved what God put into writing.
When David wrote of his delight in God’s law in Psalm 119, he was speaking of the written Torah. But he loved reading about God’s design and plan for mankind because he loved God. He sought God with all His heart.
It was God he wanted. Not just doctrine. Not just disciplines. Not just a certain amount of verses read or memorized. Not just a certain way of life. He wanted God. He even craved God’s law more than food. He was willing to go without sleep because he had such a hunger and desire for God and to see His ways established on the earth. That is why he delighted in God wrote.
You see, we have a much bigger problem on our hands than simply the fact that people don’t read their Bibles every day. A much bigger problem than people not valuing Scripture.
We don’t want God.
That could be said of those who have neglected the Bible, or those who have idolized it. We don’t hunger for God. We don’t love Him so deeply that we willingly go without food and sleep to internalize His message in deeper, more meaningful ways.
We want ourselves.
And we want God to work for us. We want His Word to either be the whip by which we control people, or we don’t want it at all. If God can’t better our lives, we will simply let Him go.
Peter instructed us to long for pure spiritual milk like newborn babes (1 Pet. 2:2). How does a newborn babe long for milk? Does it have to discipline itself to cry out for Mommy? Does it work hard to develop the habit of coming to the breast every three to four hours?
The desire for God’s Word ought to be something so natural within a believer that we don’t need to be“disciplined” into it. Instead, it ought to be something we feel we can’t live without. And if we don’t have such a compelling desire within us for the Word of God, then we ought to seek out what it is we are missing. We ought to ask ourselves, “Why don’t I want to read what God has spoken to me?”
We might find erroneous beliefs. We might find hidden pain. Maybe even misplaced priorities.
But more often than not, I am convinced we will find that we have lost sight of Jesus. We have checked out in our relationship with Him, and we have disconnected the Bible from getting to know Him better.
You want to hunger for God’s Word? Encounter Jesus.
What I Believe about the Bible in 18 Statements
For those of you who like simple statements. Here it is. Whether you’ve read the whole way through this epistle or skipped ahead just to get the gist, here are eighteen statements I deeply believe about the Bible:
- The Bible is the inspired Word of God
- Therefore, we are to apply our lives to the Bible, not apply the Bible to our lives
- The Bible is not the totality of God’s Word, even though it gives wisdom to salvation
- God is bigger than the Bible
- The Holy Spirit illuminates the message of the Bible into our hearts
- The Holy Spirit speaks God’s Word into our hearts even apart from the Bible
- But the Bible is the plumb line by which we know whether what we hear is God’s Spirit or not
- The Bible is trustworthy first and foremost because it is God’s Word
- Secondly, it has been proven to be trustworthy by the most critical literary tests of any piece of literature
- The power of the Bible (the Outer Word) is that it leads us to Jesus (the Inner Word)
- Our aim ought not to be to figure out the Bible, but to know God and live as He designed
- The way to cultivate a compulsive hunger for God’s Word is to get to know the Person of the Bible, not just the book
- We read our Bibles when we don’t feel like it not because it makes us better Christians or because it makes us holier people, but because even though we’re tired and feel dry we want to meet Jesus
- And the Bible always leads us to Jesus
- And Jesus makes us holy
- The Bible is not as clear as we’d like to think
- So, we must wrestle with things we don’t understand in the Bible while resting in God’s sovereignty when He hasn’t made everything super clear
- In that rest, we are to submit to His Word because He is trustworthy. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Now, I don’t get to choose which posts people take viral and discuss. But if there was one I wish would go viral, it would be this one. Not No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible. This is a much fuller perspective of what I believe about the Bible and being faithful to God’s Word. So, if you appreciated this post, please share it with your friends using the options to your left. And if you’d like to say something in response to it, you may do so in the comments below.
[1] Check out this article for further study on what early Anabaptists believed about the Holy Spirit and how he interacts with us.
