Spiritual Disciplines: Mature Reading

By Zach Chronley

This is part one of a nine-part series on spiritual disciplines meant to edify the church on disciplining ourselves to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to love one another. Now more than ever, we need to be reminded, challenged, exhorted, and conscious of what we’re doing with our time and how we’re disciplining ourselves according to God and his word.

Bible Reading

In Jesus’ parable of the sower, we are told of seeds being scattered across various quality soils. Jesus tells us that ravens and thorns respectively steal and choke the seeds to keep them from sprouting. He describes two kinds of soil: a stone-filled and shallow soil that keeps seeds from taking root, and then a rich soil that bears fruit and multiplies itself. Jesus explained what each soil condition meant: the enemy, the cares for this word, and shallow, unrooted faith all keep the seeds from multiplying. Jesus concludes his explanation in Matthew 13:23 “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The good soil is the one who hears and understands his word. Understanding is how we will bear much fruit. So how do we understand, and how do we grow deep roots? Psalm 1 teaches us that we become rooted by our delight in the word of God. The Bible was meant to be thought over, meditated on as Psalm 1 says, “day and night.” We don’t read the Bible to say that we have read it. We need to spend time in the Scriptures believing that every word is meant to lead us towards life.

God wants us growing towards maturity and he values discernment and wisdom in his children. In the same way, we as parents desire our children to grow up to be wise and discern how to live in a way that reflects how they were taught. God’s word is maturing us into the image of his Son. This takes time. The process cannot be microwaved; maturing is slow. This is a practice that requires constant refinement. If we are not continually transforming our minds through God’s word, then we are always being conformed by something else.

When anyone may ask, “why read the Bible?” our answer can always decisively be, “to know Jesus more.” The Pharisees had memorized more Scripture than many of us could ever hope to, but Jesus rebuked them saying, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” It’s not enough to know the words but know what the words are saying. 

If the Pharisees were not able to truly understand, then how can we? Jesus gives us the answer in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” We have the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us towards understanding. Knowledge without love “puffs up” (1 Cor 8:1) and the temptation of the religious, like the Pharisees before us, is to become self-righteous from our moral superiority.

But we need to understand that the Bible is not only, or even primarily, about moral teaching. Jesus did not come primarily to teach us a more moral way of life. Apart from the commandment to “love others as I have loved you,” John’s gospel account of Jesus’ life contains no other direct moral teaching from Jesus. This does not mean to diminish the moral lessons Jesus gave, but being the last written Gospel, John emphasizes that Jesus’ life, teaching, death, and resurrection are about more than morals. Jesus’ purpose was not to make bad men good, but dead men alive!

Love > Knowledge

As theologian James K.A. Smith writes, “Being a disciple of Jesus is not primarily a matter of getting the right ideas and doctrines and beliefs into your head in order to guarantee proper behavior; rather, it's a matter of being the kind of person who loves rightly.” It is not enough for us to have good theology if we miss the point: Jesus. God's word helps us love him and others rightly. Our ultimate goal is to know him and love others by helping them know him. The fruit (or evidence) of the Spirit that teaches and guides us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).

As Paul warns the Galatian church about arguing using Scripture, “For the whole law [meaning the entire Old Testament] is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Gal 5:15). We must use the Bible maturely, and not destructively. As part of the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit remains an essential tool meant to disarm direct attacks. A mature and faithful disciple uses Scripture to tear down cosmic powers of evil and oppression. The word of God was never meant to be used to cut others down.

If you find yourself unable to incorporate an increased understanding of Jesus into your typical biblical reading then you are not alone. God’s design is that good Bible teachers are essential. As Peter wrote of Paul’s letters “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). The Bible has a context that requires some assistance to fully comprehend, but the word itself is the standard and the authority. We need not second guess God’s choices in inspiration. God chose to have the biblical writers write the Scriptures when he did. We can have a full assurance that nothing vital is lost or forgotten.

The purpose of our reading is not primarily to gain information but for our transformation. The world and the culture are constantly feeding us worldviews and are attempting to disciple us. The Bible teaches us a counter-cultural worldview. Sometimes they overlap, but most often they don’t. And where the world is constantly changing its values, God’s word stands true eternally. As Hebrew scholar Michael Heiser puts it, “[The Bible] reveals the origin and destiny of all things; records God's dealings with mankind in the past, present, and future; and focuses on the Person, Work, and Nature of Jesus Christ.” The world needs to know the gospel, and the world needs mature Christians that understand the gospel. We need to discipline ourselves for the sake of the world, and it starts with opening God’s word.

How do we maturely read the Bible? 

• Make a plan. As a habit, don’t haphazardly read bits and pieces but find a guided reading plan that leads you through the whole Biblical narrative. It does not necessarily need to be straight through, many plans have a variety to give your reading momentum. Here is a list of several plans.

• Meditate on the verses you are reading. Take time to consider all that you can learn about God and Jesus through what you are reading. There is a small value in reading much and understanding little. Give yourself the time and space to let your mind linger on what you’ve read after you’ve finished reading. Challenge yourself to continue to “chew on” the verses while doing other mundane tasks.

• Be patient, don’t rush through it. Don’t expect to understand everything immediately. Some things require more time to understand than others. If you do not understand something, do some research. A study Bible’s notes may help, but looking in a biblical concordance or biblical dictionary may give even more understanding. There are excellent free resources available online (see below).

For more resources on understanding Biblical reading please consider:

The Bible Project Resources on How to Read the Bible

https://bibleproject.com/explore/how-to-read-the-bible/

Blue Letter Bible - Free Online Study Resources

https://www.blueletterbible.org/study.cfm