How Not To Read The Bible

How not to read the Bible …

“Reading the Bible, if we do not do it rightly, can get us into a lot of trouble” Eugene Peterson.

We’ve all been taught how to read (though my daughter insists that she taught herself!), and we all read with similar preconditioned dynamics deeply ingrained in how we read. Here’s how it plays out:

“We come to a text with our agenda firmly in place, perhaps not always consciously but usually unconsciously. If what we start to read does not adapt fairly quickly to our agenda, we usually lay it aside and look for something that does. When what we’re reading adapts to our agenda, we exercise control over it by grasping it with our minds. Then, our rational, cognitive, and intellectual dynamics go into full operation to analyze, critique, dissect, reorganize, synthesize, and digest the material that fits our agenda. Thus, our general mode of reading is to perceive the text as an object ‘out there’ over which we have control. We control our approach to the text; we control our interaction with the text; we control the impact of the text upon our lives.” M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

To summarize, the way we read is based on three ingrained assumptions:

we are the masters of what we read
texts/content are subordinated to our intellect
we have the right to choose what to do or not do with what we read

When it comes to Bible reading, these assumptions create tremendous obstacles. Here’s why:

The author of the Bible, God, is all-knowing, wise, and powerful. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.” As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” Isaiah 55:8-9. That places God in control, not us.

Because God is in control, we must, therefore, come under the authority of His Word. In other words, when we read the Word, we cannot be the masters of what we read. Nor can we stand to one side exercising our cognition and intellect to evaluate the text in the light of our own best interests. Instead, the Bible must read us!

Four Bible reading suggestions.

So how does that happen? How do we read the Bible without controlling the text, our interaction with the text, and the impact of the text on our lives? Here are four suggestions:

1. Humble yourself.

Because God is omniscient, His Word is holy, and He’s God (and we’re not), being humble is the only acceptable way for us to read His Word. Humility is a bankruptcy of spirit (cf. Matthew 5:3). It depends solely on God’s righteousness (cf. Luke 18:9-14). It’s receiving something from God like a little child (cf. Luke 18:15-17). And it’s tied up with fearing the Lord (cf. Psalm 25:9-12; Proverbs 15:33). Now here’s the kicker. We need humility to read the Bible because, without it, we lack wisdom (cf. Proverbs 11:2). When we don’t have wisdom, the Bible is confusing, i.e. we don’t know how to hear or understand God’s Word (cf. Matthew 13:13).

2. Learn to listen.

There’s listening, the everyday kind of listening, and there’s the listening that happens (when we are patient and still – cf. Psalm 37:7) in the depths of our being. We need to learn to listen from the inner reaches of who we are – to pay attention not just with our minds but with our hearts and spirits. For this listening to occur, we must focus all our faculties on God. We must hear/see beyond the words on the page to find and know the God who “speaks” the words. And when we find Him, we must open our ears to receive instruction, comfort, renewal, grace, rebuke, correction, or whatever He wants to share with us.

3. Incline your heart.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5. Biblically speaking, the heart is the center of our emotional, intellectual and moral activity. It’s the inner sanctum where the experiences of joy, sorrow, love, fear and the whole range of emotions occur. The emotional state of the heart impacts our entire being (cf. Proverbs 15:13; 17:22). It’s also the wellspring of our hopes and desires. Most importantly, when we look for God with all our heart, that’s when we find Him (cf. Deuteronomy 4:28-29).

4. Be soul-aware.

When we read the Scriptures rationally and critically, there’s a tendency (and danger) to manipulate the text to validate the pervasive make-up of our self-referenced being. To counteract this tendency, we need to be soul-aware. The road to being soul-aware begins with dying to self and not gratifying “the desires of the sinful nature” Galatians 5:16. It’s also letting our response to God’s Word percolate into the core of our volitional nature. This is done, in part, through asking questions like, “What am I feeling?” or “What is God stirring up in me?” or “How is the Spirit moving my spirit?”

Thomas à Kempis said, “A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning.” So, let’s not read the Bible the way we’ve been taught to read. We cannot and should not take control of the text as if it’s powerless without our intervention. That’s a sure-fire way to filter out God’s voice! Let’s read it in a new way. Let’s read it without “reading” it. And let’s read it with vulnerability – with a desire to hear and be transformed by it!

How not to read the Bible. What would you add or subtract?

Summary

How not to read the Bible: There are common pitfalls in reading the Bible because we often approach it with preconceived agendas, controlling our interaction with the text rather than allowing it to shape us. The Bible is God’s revelation, and we must humble ourselves, recognize God’s authority and wisdom, and read with the intent to be transformed, not to manipulate the text. Mulholland suggests four key approaches: humility, deep listening, inclining our hearts towards God, and awareness of the soul’s response to Scripture. Ultimately, to read the Bible rightly, we must let it “read us” and open ourselves to its life-changing impact.

2 Corinthians 4:5

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