Do I really have to read?!
Ronnie just blogged about the importance of reading and I wanted to give a little story from my life.
When I was taught the basic spiritual disciplines, like quiet times and bible study, a couple of years back, the impression I got was that I needed to get into the Word of God to study and grow spiritually. That is true. But for some reason, whether consciously after being told so, or unconsciously, I didn’t think that I needed to, could, or should, read books other than the Bible to learn about God. However, now I realize that it is not only beneficial to do so, I believe it’s necessary.
The reason for that is the huge number of people out there who are a lot smarter and more knowledgeable than I am, and who can teach me things I could never discover on my own for that reason. There are people who devoted their lives to study certain aspects of the big melting pot that is Christian scholarship, be it Greek or Hebrew language or systematic study of the biblical doctrines. Additionally, each and every author brings his own style and perspective into his studies; two authors can write about the same topic and yet be so different in their styles that reading both is very beneficial. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get a start by asking a more mature friend or your pastor who is worth reading.
This being said, the Bible is still the absolute authority, so while it’s good to get different perspectives, studies, and opinions, if they contradict Scripture they should be discarded. It may be difficult to walk the line between reading different books to gain knowledge and testing the doctrines presented in those books by using the Bible, especially at first, but over time it should become easier. Our goal is to filter all our thinking through the “God-lense”; to think biblically. I usually read a few perspectives on certain doctrines and pick the one that is biblical and, to my knowledge of the Bible, makes the most sense. Then I go back to the Bible to see if what I just learned is true. That might be as easy as looking up a few verses or as hard as keeping it in mind while I go through my whole Bible over the course of a year. If it holds up, good, if not, I change my thinking.
Doing this I benefit from all the years of study so many people have gone through while at the same time examining everything carefully and holding fast to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
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