Day 3: Study

In my country, research says 78% of Americans have a Bible, but only 9% read it. We live at a bizarre time; Never before in all of church history has the Bible and good teaching on the Bible been so widely available, yet so few of us bother with it. And it can be tempting to avoid the Bible altogether or to settle for a surface-level relationship with Scripture.

But as apprentices of Jesus, regular, thoughtful engagement with Scripture is essential.

In Luke 4v1-13 we read about Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. As you read the story, I want you to notice two things:

First, look at how steeped in Scripture Jesus was: The devil comes to tempt him off the path. And what comes out of him? Deuteronomy. Scripture.

But secondly, look at how cunning the devil was with Scripture: He quotes Scripture, too. And quite adroitly. He just slightly manipulates it to tempt Jesus to avoid the cross.

And the deceiver does to Jesus’ followers what he did to Jesus. But unlike Jesus, we often fall for it.

And without any help from the devil, people do this all the time — they misinterpret Scripture to advance their own agenda.

And don’t think that if you are a “Bible-believing Christian,” you are immune. Jesus spent much of his time correcting misreadings of the Bible from the Pharisees — who were Bible scholars.

We need this too: to be constantly honing our interpretation so that we are not deceived.

We need the discipline of study.

Study is the patient application of our mind and heart to the process of learning what the text says, what it meant to the original audience, and what it all means for us today. But it’s more: it’s applying our mind and our heart to really listen to God with a desire to obey whatever he says.

But it’s a discipline. Because the reality is: Scripture is really hard to read. Let me name four of the most pressing challenges that require study to navigate.

1. It was written in another language. And languages don’t map perfectly over each other. All translation involves interpretation.

2. It was written in another time and place. With the Bible, if you don’t understand the cultural background of a text, it can be incredibly easy to misread it.

3. It was written by dozens of different authors in a variety of genres. Originally, the Bible was a library of dozens of scrolls. This is really important because different types of literature convey truth in different ways, through history, allegory, or poetry. Meaning, if we want to understand it, we have to read each writing in its genre to discover what the author intended to say.

4. It was written over a span of 1,500 years. This library is part of a “canon” that our friends at BibleProject define as “a unified story that leads to Jesus.” But this story was written over a period of a millennium and a half, and it tells the story of all of human history, from creation to recreation. If you just pick up your Bible and open to a random page and read — if you don’t understand where you are in the larger story — you can get really confused, really fast.

This is why we need to study.

Now, let me offer you a few short words of advice on how to study.

1. Place yourself under gifted, trusted teachers. In every generation, there are people who have devoted their lives to better understand Scripture and who are gifted by God to teach. One of the best and most important steps you can take is to sit regularly under their teaching.

2. Build a library. If at all possible, begin to collect your own resource books to study from. You can start with a Study Bible. You can add a Bible dictionary. Then start on commentaries, which take you line by line through books of the Bible. And so on.

3. Pick an area of study in your season. Life is long! God willing, you will have decades to study the Scriptures. We encourage you to pick an area of study and live there for a few months, or a year, or even longer. That could be a book. Or it could be a biblical theme.

4. Don’t go it alone. The Bible is communal literature, written by and designed to be read in community. Find guides and traveling companions for the journey.

Finally, let me offer you a warning: There is a latent danger in study that comes from Jesus himself.

In John 5, Jesus said to the Pharisees: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5v39-40)

Jesus is saying it is possible to devote yourself to study and yet be deformed, not formed. This is why all study must live inside a life of discipleship to Jesus. And the motivation must be love.

Study often doesn’t feel very “spiritual” at all! It feels kind of academic, and like you’re in your head more than your heart. But it is a spiritual discipline when it’s done for the right motivation — to know and love God and become more and more like him.

As with everything in the Way of Jesus, the ultimate motivation is love.