Michael Morrison, NewLife Fellowship, June 18, 2000

Pastor Bermie asked me to speak today about Bible study, and I didn't tell him this, but I was not very enthusiastic about the assignment. I wasn't even aware of my own lack of enthusiasm at first, and came to realize it only a bit later. I think there are two reasons that I did not want to speak about Bible study.

First, I am a professional Bible study-er, and what I say may not be very credible to you. After all, I get paid to do this, and you don't. I have taken numerous classes in how to do it, and you haven't. I have taken classes in Hebrew and Greek, and most of you haven't. So if I get up and say anything about Bible study, you might say, Well, that's easy for you to say. That's easy for you to do. You've got the time and the training to do that, but I don't. That's not very realistic for me.

And I agree that it's not realistic to expect that you would do the same kind of Bible study that I do. So if you want to know about Bible study, perhaps you need to hear it from somebody more in your situation, somebody who has an ordinary job and a thousand other things to do and has to squeeze Bible study into whatever time is left over.

So my first reason for reluctance to speak about Bible study is that I'm a professional and perhaps not a very credible example. The second reason is related to the first, and that is that I am tired of Bible study. Much study is a weariness to the flesh, it says, and it is true. I have to study the Bible for classes, study the Bible for work, study books about the Bible, write papers about the Bible, answer letters about the Bible, and sometimes it gets a bit tiring. Sometimes I am up and sometimes I am down, and right now, I'm a little down. So I am not very enthusiastic right now about telling you to do something that I find tedious right now.

I think that most of you know that I take classes at Fuller Theological Seminary, classes about the Bible. And I have to read a lot of books about the Bible, and what I read is often rather dry and full of arguments about details that really aren't very important. I read books written by professional biblical scholars who study the Bible all day long and it doesn't seem to do them much good. Some of them don't seem to believe anything in the Bible, and all that Bible study and all those books are just a waste of everybody's time.

So I have little interest in encouraging you to do more of the same. So often it is much ado about very little. I certainly don't want to encourage you to do more of that kind of Bible study.

There is a place for academic studies of the Bible. There is a place for lengthy studies on small details, but it's really not for everybody, and that's not what I want to talk about today.

And I think back into our own history, and I see a lot of academic approaches to Bible study. Our articles and sermons about Bible study gave the impression that if you really wanted to study the Bible properly, you had to do it with a concordance on one side and a whole range of colored pencils on the other. We were supposed to look up Greek words, do comparative studies, color-code every verse, create elaborate charts, and write all the correct comments in the margins. A well-marked Bible was the sign of spiritual greatness, it seemed.

Now, some people did really well with that approach, but many people did not. And if we look at the fruits of that approach, I don't see much reason there to say that this is a particularly helpful way to study the Bible. Some people did well with it, no doubt, but others became terribly opinionated about the results of their studies and went off in strange directions and majored in the minors, as Mr. Blackwell would say. This kind of study doesn't necessarily lead one astray -- but neither does it necessarily lead one into the truth, either. It's fine for some folks, but it's certainly not a sure-fire method for study that we need to encourage everyone to do.

Now, if you like that method, that's OK. Keep at it. But it's certainly not for everybody, and I suspect that most Christians would do better with a different method of Bible study. Now, because of my job and because of my classes, I have to keep doing that sort of study, but I need something different, too, and I've been thinking about just what that is this past week. I need something different. Perhaps you do, too. Perhaps what I need is something you are already doing, and perhaps what I need is actually something I have already done before.

One thought that was helpful for me this week is to think about Bible study as a spiritual discipline. I need to distinguish between academic study and spiritual study.

My main point is that we don’t need to study to accumulate a list of facts about the Bible. We don’t need to memorize lots of scriptures, or create fancy charts and cross-references in the margins of our Bibles. Those things don’t hurt, but sometimes they don’t help, either. Many people spend hours every day studying details in Scripture, and sometimes it doesn’t seem to help them in the slightest. They pile up mountains of facts about the Bible, but it doesn’t seem to help them become better persons. Dean Blackwell calls them eggheads, people who have lots of stuff about the Bible in their heads but not much in their hearts.

Now, I am sensitive to this issue because I have a constant temptation to be an egghead. I have the time to study Scripture and to learn lots of things about it, and to treat it as an academic exercise--as a job. I can act as if the Bible is an object for me to study, as if it were in charge, telling it what it can and cannot mean.

But to do that would be arrogant, wouldn’t it? It would be putting myself over it, as if I knew more than it did, as if I was the teacher and as if I had nothing to learn from this book. I would learn things about the Bible, but I would not allow it to teach me anything about myself. And I think that that would be a major mistake, but it is a mistake that many Bible scholars make.

And so that is why I want to talk today about Bible study as a spiritual disciple -- not as an academic study, but as a spiritually beneficial practice. We are approaching Scripture not with the goal of amassing more facts, but in order to grow spiritually -- in order to grow closer to God. Perhaps we should call it Bible reading, instead of Bible study, because the word "study" has so many academic associations, and the word "reading" is more flexible. But we don’t want speed-reading, either -- we want to read thoughtfully. We want to read for a spiritual benefit, in order to grow in faith, in order to grow closer to God.

Now, as we pursue our goal of growing closer to God, we may well learn a few facts, and we may well memorize a few scriptures. But that is not our main goal -- our main goal is to be closer to God.

At several times in my academic life, I have had to say something like, I am tired of studying this section of Scripture. I just want to read something else for a change, something for my own interest instead of for a class obligation. Even the teachers say that students need that kind of break.

My second year at Ambassador College, for example, was one of those times. I was terribly busy with several Bible classes, and to keep my sanity I read through the psalms, and I studied them for my own interest, and not for any class, and it was really helpful for me. I was reading the Bible not with my agenda, not bringing my agenda to the text, but just letting it be what it is, letting it tell me whatever it said. I was more open to what it said, instead of asking it specific questions on assigned topics.

Now, when we study Scripture in an academic way, it’s as if we are in charge. We are asking the questions. We are deciding what’s important and what’s not. We are unwittingly narrowing the range of topics on which we let the Scriptures speak.

And often, we get some spiritual value out of it, but I think we -- at least I -- would get more spiritual benefit from it if I came to Scripture with a different attitude. At least that’s what I’ve been thinking this week, and I’d like to share some of those thoughts with you today. Some of you probably already look at Scripture in this way. You don't have to fight against the academic temptation because you aren't academic. Perhaps you've been more spiritual in your interests all along, maybe without even realizing what you are doing, but at least for folks like me it may be helpful to think about what we are doing when we study Scripture.

Some personalities tend to be more academic, more structured. Others tend to be more emotional, with less temptation to analyze and organize. And if you are one of those personalities, but if you have always assumed that Bible study is supposed to be academic, then you probably don't have much interest in study. Perhaps you are like me, a little tired of "study," and like me, you need to have a different approach to the Bible.

So, I want to look at Bible reading as a spiritual discipline, as a spiritual practice, not as an academic exercise. There is a time and place for academic study - I certainly don’t want to deny that - but it is also helpful for us to seek spiritual benefit from the very start. We are not trying to pile up facts to write down on a test. We are not trying to solve problems and write papers.

No, we are focusing on spiritual value, spiritual benefit, spiritual growth, spiritual transformation - in ourselves. We are not trying to get more ammunition to use on somebody else - we are trying to bring ourselves to Scripture in a submissive way, so that Scripture has a better chance of changing us, of teaching us, of reaching us with its message. I have to make time for that kind of study. It isn't assigned. I can't write papers on it. I just need to do it.

Now, what spiritual value might we look for? Oh, things like faith, like correction where we are wrong and encouragement where we are right. But I don’t want to limit it to that. I want to be open for whatever it is that God wants to teach me. Maybe it’s insight into my own nature. Maybe it’s a better perspective on the church. Maybe it’s a glimpse of God’s glory. I don’t know. I just want to be open to whatever it is.

Sometimes a particular verse will have different messages in it, for different people, or for different times in our lives. What I get out of it today may not be the same thing I got out of it five years ago, and that is OK. My needs change from year to year, and my capacity to learn changes from year to year. What I need to learn now, is not the same thing I will need to learn tomorrow. As my circumstances change, and as my attitudes change, and as my spiritual maturity changes, I will draw different lessons out of the same verse.

And what you get may be different than what I get. There are no "right" answers to put down on a test. The spiritual use of Scripture is not so easily contained as filling in the blanks or choosing a particular response on a multiple-choice test.

OK, now let’s look at some Scriptures to see what they say about themselves. A basic passage about Scripture is in 2 Timothy 3, verses 15-17. This tells us where Scripture came from, and what it is good for.

from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So we see in this passage several important things about the Scriptures. They can enlighten us about salvation, about faith, about Christ, and about how we ought to live -- and the reason that they can do this is because they are God-breathed. They are inspired by God. They were spiritually given, and they are to be spiritually received. The words of Scripture are the words of God, and if it says it, he says it -- and that is why it is worth studying. We need to live by every word of God, and we need to keep reading them, because we never have it all.

Earlier, I talked about how it is arrogant for us to study Scripture as if we knew more than it did, as if we could correct it, as if we were in charge. Now, I think it is also arrogant if we do not study it at all. It is arrogant for us to act as if we already know as much as we need to know. Here we have a message from God, and it would be arrogant for us to say, Ho hum. I think I’d rather watch Jeopardy. Now, it is not a sin to watch Jeopardy, but I believe it is a sin to ignore what God says or act as if he didn’t have anything worthwhile to say.

Now, we don’t intend to insult God when we ignore the Scriptures. We don’t intend to be proud and set ourselves up as self-sufficient, and already knowing enough. More likely, we stay away from Scripture because we think we are not good enough, or not clever enough, or not spiritual enough, to understand what it is saying.

We have gone to the Bible too many times and read it and said to ourselves, That didn’t do me a bit of good. I don’t know what it means, or it doesn’t seem to be relevant to my life right now. And we have low expectations for our study, and we skip it more and more often because we are too busy doing stuff that seems like it is more needed at the time. And so we get into a habit of not reading the Bible.

I can understand that, because I do that.

But my attitude does not change what the word of God is, and what it is good for. It is still a message from God, and it is still good for teaching me about salvation, about faith, about Christ, and about how to live. -- And when I fail to get anything out of it, the fault is with me and not with Scripture. Basically, I need to give the Scriptures a little more respect for their ability to do what they were designed to do.

As it says in Romans 10, faith comes from hearing the message. People hear the message, and they believe. Now, belief is something that we do, and it is also something that God gives. It is a combination of the human and the divine, combined in such a way that we cannot draw lines anywhere and say this is where the human part is and that's where the divine part is. No, it is welded together and cannot be compartmentalized.

I think that what I am trying to say is that we can't expect to be able to neatly define the spiritual value of Bible reading. We can't expect to describe in words the exact thing we got out of it. Sometimes we can, but often we are unable to say just exactly what the specific value is, and that is OK, and it is even to be expected, because that is the nature of spiritual things. They can't be itemized on an exam or essay paper.

And what I am leading to is the idea that we need to keep reading the Bible even if we don't have any particular results from it. Oh, I believe that the results are there -- it's just that we are unable to describe them in an academic way. Sometimes we can, but even if we can't, God's Word does have an effect on our lives. It will achieve the purpose for which it was given. We do not need to know how, nor precisely what. We just need to do it.

We need to come regularly to the word of God and say, I need instruction from God. I am not self-sufficient and I do not know all that I need to know. And often, I do not even know what it is that I lack. I just come to the Bible to find out what it is that God wants to teach me. It might have immediate application in my life, or it might not, but I have to come in order to give it a chance. I need to make it a habit, or else I'll have a habit of not coming.

A regular discipline of reading the Bible is an act of worship. It is an acknowledgement of our dependence on God. It is an act of faith, and it is also something that builds faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. That is a spiritual fact, and we do not have an academic explanation for it. We cannot map it all out and say that the human part is here and the divine part is there. It is both human and divine, all combined. A regular habit of Bible reading helps increase our faith.

Now, there is no guarantee in this. Like I said, some people study the Bible all day long, and it doesn't seem to do them any good. They come to the Bible to be experts in the Bible, to be masters of it, instead of letting it master them, letting it be in charge of them, letting it teach them. There is a place for academic study of the Bible, but we also need a spiritual approach to the Bible, too. We need to come to the Bible with a spiritual hunger, a spiritual desire, not just with an attitude of "I want to study the Bible and solve its problems."

Now, generally, we've got more problems than the Bible does. We do not need to solve its problems. We need to admit that we are the one who has problems, and the Bible has answers to solve our problems. We need to come to the Bible to let it teach us what God wants us to know. We need to let it teach us even when we don't have any particular need in mind, because we have needs we do not know about.

Now, before I close I want to look at 1 Corinthians 2, for there Paul writes about human wisdom and spiritual wisdom, and what he writes could easily be about academic knowledge as opposed to spiritual knowledge, or faith. 1 Corinthians 2:13-14:

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The words are human words. The grammar is a human grammar, but the message is spiritual. Academically, we can define the words. We can analyze the grammar. We may provide a technically correct translation, and yet we can fail to get the message. Even a person who does not believe in God can understand that the Bible is talking about God, and can often understand what the Bible is saying about that God. Even a person who is proud can understand that the Bible condemns pride. Even a person who is self-reliant can understand that the Bible criticizes self-reliance.

But if our understanding goes no further than that kind of understanding, we have not understood the real message of the Bible, have we? We have understood without really understanding. That's because there are two levels involved, an academic level and a spiritual level. In one sense it is possible for an atheist to understand the Bible, but in another sense the atheist is simply unable to understand the Bible.

We need the spiritual level. We need the Holy Spirit to help us discern the meaning for our spiritual health, for our spiritual edification, for our spiritual understanding. We need to read the Bible more attentive for that.

How do we do it? Pray, read, meditate. Give it time. We can't be in too big a hurry to read through the Bible in a year, for example. That's OK if you do, but we should be in so much of a hurry to read that we fail to listen for what God is saying to us through the words of Scripture. We need to listen as we read, to think about the spiritual message that's there, not just the technical meaning of the words.

We can think, Paul wrote this in A.D. 55 while he was in a certain city, and he was addressing certain problems in the church in another city. Or we can also think, What does this say about my own tendencies? What does this say about my own idolatries, about the things that compete for my attention and affection? What does this say about my behavior, about my temptations, about the way I get along with my spouse, about what I do in the church?

The spiritual meaning doesn't follow the rules of good interpretation. It is not an academic reading. I wish I had some rules to help us in this, but I don't. Maybe they cannot be written. Maybe the spiritual meaning cannot be turned into rules, because rules could be turned into an academic study, and I think that the spiritual study of Scripture can never be turned into an academic discipline. But it is important, even more important than the technical understanding of the words. The spiritual message is spiritually discerned, and that's what we need Bible study for.