Sometimes I pause for a moment in my heart before to telling someone who is struggling with sin to read the Bible. Not because I don’t believe in its inspiration or inerrancy or infallibility, but because it can sound legalistic or even just old-hat.
I’ve tried reading. I’ve tried memorizing Scripture. I’ve tried meditating on it. And I know it’s good, and I should keep reading, but I need something else.
Now, it’s true, just telling someone to read the Bible and leave it at that, as if the sheer act of reading automatically helps them overcome a sin-pattern, is unhelpful at best and harmful at worst. Because we can easily use the Bible to get what we want – to get immediate results in our sanctification.
But that’s not why the Bible was written. If we simply read the Bible (or memorize it), thinking this act automatically and perhaps even quickly solves our heart problems, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.
We read the Bible because it is “the word of Christ”; we read it because it points us to Christ. We read it because in the very words that God breathed out through His Spirit through human authors, we can know and experience Christ – His glory and His grace.
The written word feeds our faith in Christ (Rom 10:17) and enables us, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, to spiritually see the Truth, specifically the Truth of the glorious excellencies of Christ our Lord and Savior (2 Cor 3:18).
In other words, the written word gives us the living Word (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1). Through the Bible, we get Christ; we see His glory; we experience His love, grace, and power; we know Him more and more. The written word testifies about Christ (John 5:39) – and when we hear it with faith, we have fellowship with Christ in our hearts.
Read the Bible, by all means. Read it everyday. But read it expecting not just to know more about its history or its doctrines. Read it expecting to know Christ more. The written word feeds us Christ Himself, the source of all life, righteousness, and wisdom. So, enjoy Him and the intimacy of His fellowship as you read the Bible.
