“Where is Christ in this section of Scripture? What does this have to do with the ultimate purpose of Scripture: that I may know Him and Him crucified?” If you ask and answer that question, you have been spiritually disciplined in the right way. And it won’t matter if you got through one verse or a hundred.
The universe was created by words. We primarily interact with the truth through words. We primarily interact with each other through words. We are to take God at his word. Faith comes from hearing the Word. Jesus is the Word through whom all things hold together. It seems to me that words are embedded into the very fabric of our being, our epistemology, and our salvation. This means that our spiritual formation and the spiritual disciplines we employ should be logo-centric, that is, word-centered and specifically Word-centered.
Words matter. They can delight, and they can hurt. They can tear down and build up. Words can even create states of affairs. If a young man dares to say these three little words to his girlfriend, “I love you”, the relationship will change. He will have created a new state of affairs, hopefully for the better! Misogynistic or racist rants will create a state of affairs that the speaker may never be able to undo. Our words cannot create light out of nothing like God’s words did. Nor can our words change reality (I am not a cat even if I say so), but God has gifted us with the magnificent power of language. We have been given a dynamic Gospel Word that can save (Romans 1:17) and have been gifted a powerful tool as human beings created in His image.
So, watch your tongue! And pay special attention to the words that you consume. They are living and powerful things. They form you. This is not to say that we should practice a pietistic censorship. We should hear words that challenge and even offend. But it is to say that we should be cognizant of our consumption of words. This is lesson number one in the spiritual discipline of reading God’s Word. Read widely. Words are a gift from God. All words. It is how you will be connected to the truth, the world, and other people. But be discerning. Hold these words up to the light of Scripture (Acts 17:11).
Lesson number two is to stay close to the Word. “Take up and read!” Augustine encourages us. This means that you have to actually do the hard work of reading. And herein lies the problem. How do we practice the spiritual discipline of Bible reading without making it a law to follow? How do we keep Bible reading from becoming a source of pride or an opportunity for guilt to rear its ugly head? First, remind yourself that there is no Bible history test to get into heaven. Nor is there a heavenly prize for making it through the whole Bible in one year. And yet there should be no guilt for making a plan either. Remember that in baptismal grace every day is a new day. The old sinful person who is lazy and distracted is drowned in the waters of baptism, and the new creation is resurrected to live a new day. And then remind yourself of this fact tomorrow after you fail again. And so what? So what if you missed a day, a week, a month? Nobody is keeping track except you and the devil, who wants to accuse you of failure before God’s law.
Here are some tips that might help you ward off that devilish accusation that sucks the joy and delight of reading God’s Word.
- Think in terms of time rather than word count. Set aside time to read rather than assigning yourself a section of Scripture (though that is okay too). Thirty minutes per day, ten, five?
- Slow down. Ten minutes with one verse is often more valuable than reading a whole chapter. Let your mind catch up with your brain. The mind may want to stop and ponder one word while the brain wants to keep reading to the end.
- Read out loud. Seriously. That might seem weird to us, but in the grand scope of history we are the weird ones. The ancients read out loud. Reading aloud slows you down because you hear the words instead of only seeing them on a page.
- Speaking of hearing, have you ever listened to a familiar section of Scripture chanted? Take John 1 for example. When I read this, whether to myself or out loud from a lectern, I read it with my own interpretation. I emphasize the word “Word”. “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God…” When I do this, I think about the ramifications of Christ as the Logos. Others may emphasize “In the beginning”. This recalls for them the connection between John’s Gospel and Genesis 1. I admit that I skip over the robust words, “In the beginning”. This is not good because I am determining which words are more important than others. I am unwittingly interpreting John’s Gospel according to my own interests. One solution to this problem is to read in a monotone voice: “In… the… beginning… was… the… Word…” But that literally sounds awful. Chant fixes this problem. Chant is unique because it treats every word the same. It does not emphasize “In the beginning” or “the Word”. They are equal. Chant is only concerned with the notes of the music. So “In the beginning” and “the Word” have the same value. When you hear a familiar section of Scripture chanted, the words that you normally did not emphasize may ring in your ears in a new way. You may just find a new appreciation for those familiar words. Try it once in a while. It’s worth the effort.
- Mix it up, but always read some Gospel. So, you made it through Leviticus. Good for you! Pair it with a Gospel reading to see the whole picture. Maybe Monday could be Psalm day, Tuesday with Moses, Wednesday with Paul, and Thursday and Friday with the Gospels. Or fifteen minutes with a Gospel every day and 15 minutes with another portion of Scripture. Mix the cocktail any way you want, but remember that these are the words that ultimately testify about Christ (John 5:39).
- Lose yourself. Go down a rabbit hole. Research the etymology of the Word. Use a concordance to find where this word is used elsewhere. But always find a way back out of the hole. It is fun down there, but it can be dangerous. Commentaries help us with this danger. They keep us grounded.
- Learn a foreign language. Okay, that one is a bit much. You can still delve into Greek and Hebrew without fully understanding them. There are plenty of resources. For those of you who are legitimately bilingual, you know the benefit of thinking about a concept in two different languages. Your understanding of the concept is fuller, isn’t it? These words of Scripture are packed full of meaning. What is the Spanish, German, or Greek word for love? What nuances do those languages provide for you? So what if you didn’t get through all of 1 Corinthians 13. If you spent an hour on the word “love” it was worth it. The rest of the chapter will be there tomorrow.
- Finally, find Christ. Ask the question, “Where is Christ in this section of Scripture? What does this have to do with the ultimate purpose of Scripture: that I may know Him and Him crucified?” If you ask and answer that question, you have been spiritually disciplined in the right way. And it won’t matter if you got through one verse or a hundred.
