Besides, with the high rate of illiteracy among the social groups represented among the rank and file of second- and third-century churches, having a personal copy of the Bible would have been useless anyway. Most Christians wouldn’t have been able to read it.
The Ridiculous Emphasis Christians Place on Bible Study
I bring all this up to make one simple point: The modern-day church places a ridiculous amount of emphasis on Bible study.
It’s obvious, from historical observation alone, that one can be a sold-out, fully devout, willing to die a martyr’s death follower of Jesus and spend next to no time practicing the spiritual discipline of Bible study.
Do we think it’s any coincidence that the period of the church’s greatest growth and expansion (33–mid 300’s A.D.) occurred during the time when there wasn’t (1) a Bible in every Christian’s hand and (2) an obsessive preoccupation with Christians clustering to study it word by word, line by line and page by page?
Most Christians today assume that to be a Christian means to have a personal relationship with the Bible instead of the risen Jesus.
To be consumed with it.
To obsess over its details.
To memorize curiously meaningless trivia about it.
To study its root words and the historical data underpinning every sentence, every chapter and every book.
But what if we’re totally missing the point?
What if one of the reasons we’re so spiritually dead and the church is abysmally failing at its mission is not because we study the Bible too little, but too much?
Instead of being out and about extending the works of the kingdom, Christians are wasting precious time excessively “studying the Bible” in groups and feeling quite content that if they’re practicing the “spiritual disciplines” at home that they’ve done their duty and can call it a day.
Who gives a crap if I never open my mouth and share my faith today? Or forgive those who mess me over? Or share my money with those in need? Or my house with the homeless?
All is good.
I read my Bible today.
What do you think? Do I have a point, or am I missing the point?
This article about the place of Bible study originally appeared here.
