How's Your Bible Reading?

February, 2004

by: Jeff Jones

When I write these little Calvary Review articles, I often attempt to shape our thinking on various issues. This month I thought I'd aim at the issue of Bible reading. In my Christian life, true spirituality has been largely associated with the amount of Bible reading I do during the day and/or how well I pay attention during a sermon. Some pastors even suggest (or at least come across as suggesting) that those who take diligent notes during their sermons are surely very “spiritual” souls. Now, I have no qualms about reading the Bible daily and paying attention to sermons, while indeed taking diligent notes, but I would want to argue whether or not those things are the marks of true spirituality.

Interestingly, if you know your history, not until the invention of the printing press (in the 1500's) did common Christians have personal copies of the Bible. And I would guess that very few Christians came to church carrying writing utensils, prepared for note–taking (at least in ancient days). Also, if you read the Bible, you might notice that God's people are rarely, if ever, exhorted to read it for themselves. Instead they are exhorted to long for it, listen to it, meditate on it, and obey it.

This might (or might not) surprise you: In the days the Bible was written, it was possible to obey everything in it, without actually having a personal copy. Spirituality, then, could not have been demonstrated through following a daily reading schedule, having a marked up Bible was, or having collections of sermon notes. To the contrary, “spiritual” people were those who loved and desired to hear God's Word read and taught (1 Pet 2:2), those who meditated on God's Word throughout the day (Ps 1:1-3), and those who sought to obey God's Word over merely hearing it (James 1:22).