Biblical Illiteracy Part I

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97)

There are studies which suggest that the Church is in serious theological trouble due to biblical illiteracy. In an age where knowledge abounds and we have the ability to learn about any topic which excites our minds with the push of a button, knowledge of the Bible is waning. Why is this so? Why do we Christians find such little excitement at the mention of Holy Scripture and why do exhortations to pick up God’s Word and read it diligently so often fall on deaf ears and hard hearts? Let me propose a few possible explanations.

                My first reason is simply that God is not our first love. When we first fell in love with a young man or lady our lives were transformed. We couldn’t spend enough time with them. Conversations would run into the early hours of the morning. We longed to learn everything we could of the likes and dislikes, the opinions and experiences of our newfound infatuation. With this knowledge we sought to bring joy to their hearts by purchasing their favourite box of chocolates or taking them to a movie or to a restaurant they would most certainly adore. In short, when we love someone we long to spend all of our time with them and all of our energy on them. In Matthew 22 Jesus is asked: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He responds with a two-part answer, but the first element is of particular concern for us here: “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Our failure to obey this greatest of  commandments keeps us from spending time with God (reading His Word and praying) and obeying Him (blessing His heart through our obedience). I find that I cannot force myself to love someone. Even if I am able to produce some sort of loving feeling for a short time, it quickly fades and I am left with my indifference or even disdain. If we truly want to love God the way He calls us to, I suggest that we start on our knees – asking Him to give us this love that is due Him.

                Another contributing factor to our lack of knowledge about Scripture is that we lack discipline when it comes to reading God’s Word. There are many habits which we routinely perform on a daily basis because we recognize their importance. We know that showering leads to favourable social consequences, exercising is the cause of many health benefits, reading keeps us intellectually stimulated and knowledgeable, and eating, well, eating keeps us alive. We discipline ourselves to perform many activities that we trust are “good for us.” Yet for some reason, even though each and every believer would agree that it is profitable to read Scripture, many of us fail to spend significant amounts of time immersed in its pages. We fail to set aside regular times for “devotions” or we skip over these times because other priorities emerge. Proposing a solution is easy. Seeing it through is not. We all acknowledge that reading Scripture is important. We have all made plans to read it on a regular basis. So, with a will of iron, let us begin following our reading plan, allowing nothing to get in its way. We will find that as we begin habitually reading Scripture, it will become easier and easier to continue in this essential discipline.

                A third hindrance to regular Bible reading is the busyness of life. Modern people lead chaotic lives. We work, go to school, taxi children, pursue relationships, have friends, exercise and have gruelling entertainment schedules. Many, if not most of the things we do are necessary and even good. The danger comes when we crowd out the “best” with the “good.” In the book of Luke we meet Martha and Mary: two sisters who are devoted to Jesus but who demonstrate their devotion in different ways (Luke 10:38-42). Mary sits at the feet of Christ to listen to His teaching. Martha is busy preparing food and perhaps sleeping arrangements for Him. Martha is angry at her sister for leaving all of the hard work for her to do. But Jesus points out that Mary had chosen the better option. With Jesus in her home, the wiser decision, the necessary thing to do, was to soak in His life-transforming words. Dinner could wait. How often do we let the less important tasks of life prevent us from accomplishing the essential ones?