I want to continue the conversation about our Bible reading plans for 2025 with this statement about what the Bible is and what the Bible does:
The Bible is God’s revelation for our transformation.
Let’s start with revelation. Consider just two key passages that remind us the Bible is a communication from God given to us by God himself.
“When you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God.” ~1 Thessalonians 2:13
“All Scripture is God-breathed.” ~2 Timothy 3:16
The Bible is not just a collection of truths or a set of laws. It is a very complex, multi-faceted thing through which God has spoken, God is still speaking, and God promises to keep on speaking. Our God has not stopped talking. He hasn’t developed laryngitis. He’s not silent. He reveals to us who he is and his character and his will. He personally reveals to us what he is all about and what he is doing in this world all around us. He tells us how and why we were created and what his plans are for us. And the primary way he does that is through the Bible.
So, reading the Bible is everything. It’s life and death, and what you had for breakfast, and what you’re planning to do in April. It’s everything. So, you read the Bible with your whole life, not just with the gray stuff inside your skull.
The Bible is God’s Word straight from God himself. That’s what we believe. So, we know it’s right and we know it’s true. But sometimes we let the right and the true get in the way of our God. The whole Bible is about God–every line, every word. It’s about God. But we lose that sometimes. We’ll read all four chapters of Jonah and then spend eight weeks arguing about and trying to figure out how a man can live inside a whale and, if so, what kind of whale was it? Wait! Jonah is about God, not a whale! We’re missing it!
It’s like the football player who’s so in love with his uniform, he forgets he has a game to play. Or like the college student who finds a wonderful social life, but forgets to study. True, you can’t have Jonah without the whale, you can’t have a football game without the uniform, and college doesn’t really work without a social life. But they’re different things! We can’t miss the point!
The Bible is a revelation from God about God. And this direct revelation from God carries ultimate authority. But it’s not an impersonal authority like a collection of science facts and truth. It’s not a legal authority like volumes of legislation in a law library. It’s not a factual authority like a geometry textbook. It’s not historical authority like an ancient artifact under glass in a museum. The Bible is a personal, relational revelation that carries personal, relational authority. The Bible is God letting us in on something, showing us what it means to live as women and men created by him and in his holy image.
So, how we read it matters. We don’t pick and choose or copy and paste different verses together to win an argument or prove some point. When we open up the Bible, we open up something big, something huge and eternal, something personal from the Creator of Heaven and Earth and the Sustainer of Life. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no mind has conceived has been revealed to us now by God’s Holy Spirit.
We don’t read the Bible like we read the internet or a cookbook or a James Patterson novel. It’s not a constitution or a rule book or an owner’s manual for life. It’s God’s revelation. How we read it matters.
Peace,
Allan
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