The Sense of Scripture: Studies in Interpretation . . .

WHY READ THE SCRIPTURES?
(The Right Reason Is the Best Rule of Interpretation)

The ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. —Ps. 19:9-10

As we consider the matter of reading the Bible we are to be reminded that Bible-reading is largely a modern phenomenon, for until recent generations most people in the world did not and could not read the Bible. One reason was because there were no Bibles for them to read, certainly not until long after the invention of the printing press in about 1450. Until then all books had to be copied by hand, which made them very valuable. This is why Bibles were chained to pulpits.

But even when books began to be produced on the printing press, they were still expensive and most Christians were too poor to own one. Besides, the majority of them was illiterate and unable to read any book. Mass literacy, wealth that allows for the purchase of books, and worldwide circulation of the Bible are recent developments in human history. Our ancient brethren could not have imagined such a world as ours, where we can have a Bible in every room and in several translations. This is of course true mostly of only the "Western" world. The Bible is still unavailable to many people in undeveloped countries. Poverty and illiteracy are yet major problems throughout the world, even in our own country.

This is why the Bible itself has little to say about private reading. In the Bible when the Scriptures are referred to as being read it is public reading, such as Rev. 1:3: "Blessed is he who reads (aloud) the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near." Col. 4:16 is also to the point: "When this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read the letter from Laodicea." This is why 1 Tim. 4:13 is to be rendered as the RSV has it: "Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching."

In passing we might remind ourselves of a costly neglect in our churches: effective, interpretive reading of the Scriptures. Bible reading that is taken seriously! It is noteworthy that there is far more in the Bible about reading the Scriptures to the congregation than there is preaching sermons. There is considerable of the former and none of the latter!

There is an occasional reference to private reading of Scripture, such as in the case of the Eunuch in Acts 8 (unless we presume he was reading to his driver!). We do know that he was reading aloud since Philip the evangelist heard him. But again, that was the ancient world where apparently all reading was aloud. Silent reading and speed reading belong to the modern world. You will remember that even the kings in the Old Testament were always having stuff read to them, as in Jer. 36 where Jehoiakim had his secretary read what Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch — and proceeded to slash the leaves with his penknife and cast them into the fire. It probably was not uncommon for kings to be illiterate, and so the scribes would read to them. But all reading was aloud, even when one read only to himself.

While in the overall history of the church believers have listened to the Scriptures more than they have read them, the question we raise remains the same. Why consult the Scriptures, whether by hearing or by seeing? If we approach the Bible for the right reason or reasons, we will likely be responsible interpreters. Reading with the wrong motive will sidetrack us and send us off in the wrong direction.

While I appreciate that old German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, when he emphasized duty as the basic virtue of life, I am persuaded that Bible study should eventually reach beyond duty as a motive. It may be better to read out of duty than not to read at all, but we can move up higher. And even if Aristotle was right that the virtuous life is built around good habit patterns, Bible reading should be more than habitual. True, it may become habitual and properly so, but the habit has been formed for one reason or another.

Then there are the less acceptable motives, such as to find confirmation for our preconceived conclusions, to see only what we want to see, or to arm ourselves so that we can win an argument. Some read out of curiosity, which is better than some motives. Exciting things often happen to curious minds.

After giving some thought as to what should motivate us as we take the Bible in hand, I suggest the following, which might be viewed as motivation for Bible reading.

1. The disclosure of the mind of God.

It makes all the difference if we believe that God reveals himself in the pages of the Bible. His revelation may not be in every verse or even on every page, and certainly not in every incident or every narrative, but the Bible is a unique book in that it discloses the mind of God - as much as paper and ink can disclose the mind of God. So this is to be our basic motivation: we read and study the Bible because we believe God speaks to us in its pages. We therefore are to search for the mind of God in the holy Scriptures, and this is why they are holy, because His word is there. This is why we are to pray as well as to read. We can pray as did the psalmist: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps. 119:18). Paul prayed that "the eyes of your hearts" might be enlightened" (Eph. 1:18), which assures us that if the Holy Spirit is not our teacher in Bible reading we are not likely to discern the will of God. In 1 Jn. 2 it is made plainer still: "You have been anointed by the Holy One" (v.20); "the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything" (v.27).

When we are so motivated - "Holy Spirit of God, open my inner eyes even now as I study your word" - we position ourselves to hear what the Bible says to us. Alexander Campbell had an interesting way of putting this as he named what he believed to be the most important rule of Bible study: We must come within understanding distance. This means our minds must be eager and our hearts open. To know God must be more precious to us than gold, even much fine gold, and sweeter to our taste than the drippings of the honeycomb. If prejudice, pride, willful ignorance, or partyism keeps us out-of-range and beyond understanding distance, we are doomed to walk in darkness.

2. The unmasking and disclosure of self

We also are to come to the Bible with the realization that it tells us about ourselves. What we really are is laid open as if by the surgeon's scalpel. There is no way to survive before an open Bible without being honest. Thus Jas. 1:25 says "He who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres," which means to remain honest with God and self, "being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing." If the poet Alexander Pope was right that "An honest man is the noblest work of God," it can also be said that it is the honest man who will find the will of God for his life in the Scriptures.

Few things impressed our Lord as did an honest and good heart. "If any one wills to do God's will, he shall know," he is reported in Jn. 7:17 to have said to people who appeared to be less than honest. Here we have just about the only rule of interpretation anyone needs: an honest, sincere, seeking heart. The promise stands sure that if one seeks he will find. But honesty implies a willingness to look deeply within one's own soul and face up to his sins and weaknesses. Jesus was impressed with a soul like that who was willing to pray, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

3. The Bible is one of the books that Jesus read.

How about that for a good reason to read the Bible, because Jesus did? There are surprising things about our Lord, who knew no sin. He not only prayed but prayed agonizingly. He walked many miles to be baptized. We think of baptism and praying as things sinners would need to do. If John was resistant to the idea of Jesus being baptized, we might in a similar way insist that he would not need to read or study.

He was a student of at least three "books," the book of nature, the book of human nature, and the book of Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. He spoke often of sowing and reaping, birds and lilies, rain and storm, clouds and fields. He read deeply in the book of the natural world. And he knew what was in man, the good and the bad, and the toll taken by pride, selfishness, and hypocrisy. He knew both childishness and childlikeness, and that man can be like a dove as well as like a serpent or a fox. Jesus knew human nature like a book.

It should impress us as we make our way through the Old Testament that our Lord poured over these same Scriptures. If he needed "the hope and comfort of the Scriptures," as Ro. 15:4 describes the Old Testament, how much more do we. And he had his favorite passages, one of which was Micah 6:6, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings," which he quoted more than once in an effort to show the Pharisees the nature of true religion. It is noteworthy that Jesus found two things especially in the Scriptures that made a great difference in his life: his own mission as one sent of God in fulfillment of prophecy and the great truth that the heavenly Father is a God of mercy. On two different occasions (Mt. 9:13 and Mt. 12:7) Jesus appealed to Scripture to enforce the great principle of mercy, that God desires compassion more than an exact conformity to externals. If when we come to the Bible we learn no more than this we would be doing very well indeed.

4. God is in control and history in the end will turn out right.

If for no other reason we should read the Scriptures in order to read this glorious promise. "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pet. 3:13). The "promise" referred to goes all the way back to the prophets in the Old Testament.

One day righteousness will rule over a new earth! To believe it is to believe the Bible. In our shattered and battered world such a promise makes life meaningful. However awry things may seem we can be assured that God is up to something and in God's tomorrow it will turn out God's way. We have all seen building sites that appear to have no order to them, with a pile of gravel here and a stack of rubbish there, and hardly more than a muddy hole in the ground for a building. But if we know the architect we can believe that one day the messed-up site will be transformed into a thing of beauty and usefulness.

We are all bewildered by some of the gruesome facts about our world, such as there being 12,000,000 hungry children, most of whom are beyond our power to help. The "building site" may appear insane as well as askew, but we believe in Him who sits upon the throne and speaks: "Behold, I make all things new." That is the way the end of the Book reads. We trust the Architect and so we believe that order, beauty, and victory will come out of chaos, ugliness, and defeat. But where do we have such hope but in the Bible?

5. The wonderful Person of the Bible.

There is no greater motivation for turning to Scripture than that it tells us about Jesus. When our desire is to know him more clearly, follow him more nearly, and love him more dearly, as a Scottish divine liked to pray, then the Bible is the book for us, for he is the wonderful Person that is revealed there.

The Roman philosopher Epictetus taught that if you want to make a person happy add not to his possessions but take away from his desires, which is a judgment upon our thing-oriented world. But it might be that if one will but change his desires he will find happiness. We sing, "O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer!" To really mean that, to covet Christ-likeness, is both our victory and our joy. When we read the Bible with a desire to become more like Christ - a friend like he is Friend, compassionate like him, loving like him, forgiving like him, and wholly devoted to doing the Father's will as he was - we read it with the right heart and mind. And we are not likely to go far astray in understanding it if we read it in quest of the mind of Christ.

This means that the Bible is not the end in itself, but the Person that it reveals. It isn't the Bible we desire to know, but Jesus. Even the Bible must always be brought to the judgment bar of the Spirit of Christ.

6. There is no other book to which to turn.

An important reason for reading the Bible in our search for reality is simply that there is no other book to which to turn. The wisest thing the impulsive Peter ever said was when he replied to Jesus' question, "Do you also want to go away?" with these impressive words, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Those who turn to psychology, philosophy, or even theology will be disappointed. There is no hope in the wisdom of men or in the systems men build. We must agree with Peter that there is simply no one else or nothing else to which we can turn except Jesus Christ.

And if you read the Bible with that kind of spirit, no one need worry about you being "in error," certainly not in reference to what really matters - or who really matters! —the Editor