“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
- Psalm 1
How most Americans read the bible is not really good.
I was standing in line at a potluck a few weeks ago with an excited young lady who was telling me of her desire to read some of the Revelation of John (last book of the Christian scriptures) in light of current apocalyptic anxieties. “Aren’t you going to read the whole book?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, “I haven’t really done that before.”
I asked some more questions and was able to gather that despite her professed love of the Lord, she had not managed to read the scriptures in any significant length. She had only read short segments for encouragement. Indeed, as it turns out, her primary relationship with the scriptures is done through a sort of scriptural roulette, opening the book to random spots in times of anxiety and struggle to see what divinely inspired wisdom might speak to her in the moment. She and many others can attest to the great value in such a practice. I, however, insist the scriptures are not meant to be used in such a way.
Modern Americans are biblically illiterate. It was not always the case for us, as a people. Early American writings, political and otherwise, from leaders and regular folk alike, reflect a popular familiarity with the bible. This familiarity was not only with the popular or easy parts, but more obscure references are often made in common parlance. The King James Bible was commonly used to teach children to read, often used in public schools. It was the sole standard of English literature by which all others were measured.
Starting in the late-1800s, the Sunday School drift began to facilitate a gradual decline in scriptural literacy. As church laity increasingly turned to curricula to instruct them in biblical wisdom, such materials slowly displaced the text itself. Rather than reading through the bible without adornment, American believers were conditioned to hunger for commentary that utilized biblical citations to undergird its points. Over time, as we saw, entire denominations were able to wrangle the scriptures to say the antithesis of what they had always been understood to say, hence causing the current divide seen in many denominational bodies, including my own.
Yet even in the conservative split-off denominations, the same unhealthy scripture reading patterns continue. Few conservatives are reclaiming the centrality of the Christian canon in their spiritual lives. Those who do consult the scriptures popularly continue to allow commentaries like Jesus Calling or Guideposts or Upper Room to color their reading of the text. Pew sitters are more likely to consume media in which scripture is cherry-picked and sparsely used to buttress a political argument than to simply sit and read or listen to the biblical text.
This, of course, means that conservatives in America are still woefully vulnerable to unfaithful interpretations of scripture. Many sects rely more on personal subjective experiences as reference points of godly things, rather than the plain meaning of the scriptural text. Church bodies are often expected to show more faithfulness to the personal experience of the pastor or other lay leadership rather than the clear witness of the bible. For this reason, it is fictitious to even imagine that Christian unity can be striven towards in America.
We will not find common identity in Christ until we are all prioritizing the same text over all others, unadorned, and without interpretation.
Of course, many will scoff at the notion that scripture can be read without interpretation. Indeed, to refuse to interpret it is to neglect to even let it speak to us. It is just words without interpretation. Even so, we must claim a theology of sola scriptura or prima scriptura if we are to reestablish scripture in the central position it deserves. If believers cannot approach the scriptures without a pastor or thinker telling them what to make of it, then the Protestant Reformation is a joke and we just all need to go back to the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. If we confess the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, that means we have to mandate that Christians read the scriptures on their own, seeking the wisdom of the text to own it for themselves.
Caution Against Reading Alone
I stand by the words I have said thus far, but I have to, at the same time, insist that the bible is actually not meant to be read alone. It is a communal document. It was discerned to be the Word of God by the Holy Spirit in the context of congregational gatherings. If one’s primary understanding of the scriptures is found in subjective individual experience, then that doesn’t fit with the nature of the document being read. A congregationally-validated text needs to be congregationally interpreted.
It is worth remembering, or perhaps contemplating for the first time, that until very recently in human history, the vast bulk of people have been illiterate. That means that the majority of Christians have only been able to encounter the scriptures by having them read aloud and then committed to memory. That is the historical standard and norm for scriptural engagement. Early Christian catechists often required huge swathes of the bible to be committed to new believers’ memories. It is only very recently that it became normal for believers to be unable to quote much, if any, scripture at all. For most of the history of the church, believers have been able to assemble with a shared body of scriptural knowledge that they inculcate into the next generation while also continuing to build upon.
Anecdotes of tragedy caused by individualistic notions of interpretation
In Richfield, Idaho I had the joy of introducing a middle-aged man to the faith of Jesus Christ. Until that point in his life, he had been a functional atheist. When he came close to the church, he got a big bible that sat on a little reading stand on his dinner table. For at least an hour each day he sat and read his bible. My wife and I would come over weekly to have dinner with them and encourage one another in faith. It was precious time.
Strangely, he eventually came to the conviction that the King James Bible was the only acceptable version. He began driving to another town to worship with a KJV-only church, eventually cutting ties entirely to me and to the church that brought him to Christ.
A few years ago, here in Nowata, a young man and woman started attending worship with their young boys. I strongly encouraged the father to read his bible at home and to discern God’s message for his life. He started texting me regularly with very strange interpretations. When I began to gently push him in other directions, he was hostile. I eventually had to tell him to take some space because he got too intense.
It is amazing the way that God’s Word can and does grab men and lead them strongly. However, when a man’s connection to God is not at all influenced by a local church, he can easily get wonky. Both of these men greatly impressed me with their passion and earnest desire to follow God. Both disappointed me greatly when their passion came to be more oriented by subjective displeasure than objective humility.
How the bible should then be read
If we are to let the scriptures speak to us, we must be familiar with the holy writings on their terms. Not ours. We would encounter them slowly, in little bits, contextualized by nonthreatening voices, in the time and space we make available to God, on our own, without compromising the time we make for other things that vie for our affections. This is exactly the wrong way to come to the scriptures. Here, then, it how it should be done:
Like a fire hose, all at once. Individual books of the bible, with the exceptions of some of the longer ones, were meant to be read aloud and digested in one sitting. Many Eastern Orthodox congregations today continue to assemble for the sole purpose of listening to entire books of the bible read aloud as they all stand at attention. This is how scripture should be ingested primarily, only then followed by private devotional study. There is no space in this setting for commentary. There is only the Word of God speaking on its own terms in its own way, sometimes threateningly, sometimes lovingly. The space should be made and claimed by the covenant body, which individuals then plan around. First priority should be given to covenant body commitments above individual desires.
It is only when God’s Word speaks to us broadly that we can properly contextualize the particulars. After the assembled body has heard the Word, then it can do proper group bible study and individual scripture searching at home. Preaching is not an effort of acquainting people with God’s Word so much as helping them to tie it all together and properly apply it to our shared lives. It is only when we fail to encounter the Christian scriptures rightly that we see this fracturing and alienation that we see today. When we let folks encounter and interpret the Word on their own terms, we make the task of doing church virtually impossible.
Interpreting scripture rightly together
I have a brother in faith who assembles with a small group of men I oversee weekly. For many years of his life, he was estranged from the local church, having been burned by a covenant body that turned their backs on him when his life got difficult and messy. The Lord has slowly brought him back into vulnerable Christian fellowship.
These years away from the church were not spent outside of God’s Word. Rather, my brother daily attended upon the scriptures. He did deep personal research as to their meaning. The man’s biblical knowledge surpasses mine. As we gather in the name of Christ and minister to one another, I am regularly in awe at the ways in which my friend has internalized God’s Word.
Even so, he reached this biblical knowledge largely on his own, rather than in fellowship with Christian brethren. When he gathers with us, as he ministers to us, he also makes himself vulnerable to us in our responses to biblical living. While our proper emphasis of a Wesleyan class meeting is on our personal walks with the Lord, these walks cannot but be informed by the scriptures. So we spend a lot of time searching the scriptures together. He spends much time and energy ministering to the men in the group, sharing the understandings of scripture that I believe the Holy Spirit gave him despite his separation from a local church.
My brother knows that, as he ministers to us, he is also being corrected. He, more than once, has shown regret at his confidence in rebuking other interpretations ungraciously. He regularly has to reckon with how gray some of these topics seem to men that he loves and honors. Sometimes I can see him pushing himself to be more gracious in the process of seeking shared meaning. Other times, I can see him steadying himself to make sure he stands in his righteousness and integrity while rebuking, rather than giving in to haughtiness.
This is how proper biblical instruction is done. We seek God’s truth collectively, receiving correction, offering it, making room for more than one faithful rendering, maintaining the charity we hope others would have for us. We maintain the epistemic humility to consider that, despite our great passion and affection for God and his Word, we may have reached less than adequate interpretations. We need each other in order to hear God rightly. I need my brothers. They need me. This is how Christ designed that we should be.
The essential nature of the local church
As with so much of my writing and preaching, I return to the vital necessity of the local church. An increasing number of people in my country have fallen away from the church, insisting that they can follow the commandments of Christ without being blemished by a local group. This is a lie from the evil one. People who believe this must be roundly rebuked. While they might attend upon God’s word, they will be restrained from hearing or practicing it rightly outside of the life of a covenant body. Period.
Yet, even those who enter into a church building regularly often do not find covenant communities that are even attempting to do life together as they ought. Very few churches practice small group accountable discipleship. Even fewer attend upon God’s word in large segments together. For these reasons, American churches and their constituents are largely anemic and atrophied, coming nowhere close to the biblical standard set by Christ himself.
Whether or not it bears the name ‘Methodist,’ there must be a public reclaiming of congregational scripture reading. There must be a reclaimed concern for biblical engagement with the local church. If we do not do this hard and joyful work, the biblical text will remain a document that divides, rather than unites, those who say they love Christ. He prayed that we would be one. If we are to faithfully seek the same goal, then reclaiming congregational scripture reading is in order.
Here is a practical thing that anyone can do if they are moved by my words here: Start gathering groups of people in your local church to hear entire books of the bible all the way through. If you get bored, do it anyway. If it makes you uncomfortable, do it anyway. Someday it won’t be boring or strange. It’ll just be your way of life. And as it becomes your way of life, make sure to regularly measure your life against the standard of scripture in the setting of accountable small discipleship groups in your church.
Thank you for considering my words. The Lord bless and keep you.
Thank you Jeffrey. I am consistently encouraged by your willingness to speak the truth “Plain” truth in Love.
Blessings.
Gideons gather weekly for prayer. All week while we may be apart we engage in morning and evening Bible reading (not necessarily study but reading) when keep the same schedule as everyone else in the camp so when we meet Saturday morning for our prayer we read the predetermined scripture from our reading plan together in the round, verse by verse. Im sure we are a spectacle at the local Shoney’s. A group of men reading aloud taking turns one verse at a time. But it has shaped my understanding of scripture as much as any Bible study. We have read through the entire Bible more than once since I became a Gideon last year. I wished I would have added long form Bible reading to my Bible study’s long ago.