Why Do We Read the Bible?

Every week, during worship, we read a passage or passages from the Bible. Many of the churches with a more formal liturgy use several passages every Sunday. One lesson comes from the Old Testament; one from the epistles in the New Testament; and one from the gospels. A psalm or portion of a psalm is also read. Week in and week out, three lessons and a psalm. That is a lot of material from a very old book. Nothing in the Bible was written more recently than about 1,900 years ago, and much of it was written hundreds of years before that. What other book of comparable age do any of us read regularly, if at all?

Week in and week out, three lessons and a Psalm. Why? Why do we continue to read so much of this ancient book so regularly? It can seem so alien and baffling. Names of people and places, religious and cultural customs, historical events, political systems – these can seem so outlandish to us, sometimes incomprehensible or repugnant. How much of it do we understand and find meaningful when we hear it read in worship on Sunday mornings, even if a preacher preaches directly and extensively on it right after we hear it? Why not read something more contemporary, something more accessible and obviously relevant, if we are going to read anything regularly in worship? Surely we could each come up with at least one or two favored books, from a variety of styles and subjects, almost certainly written considerably more recently than the newest of the New Testament.

There are a number of possible answers why we read the Bible. Some might say we read the Bible just because it is old, a treasured artifact. Some, just because it is traditional to read it. Let me offer another reason, more vital and convincing, derived from Colossians 2: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith….”

If we are going to live in Jesus, if we are going to root and grow in Jesus, if we are going to establish ourselves in faith in him – we must know his life, his mind, his heart. The primary, definitive source for knowing the life, mind, and heart of Jesus is the Bible. The Bible is God’s gracious, authoritative gift for informing us about Jesus. Where else would we get to know the life, mind, and heart of Jesus? We read the Bible so much, then, to gain information about Jesus – not to mention the Father, the Holy Spirit, and much more!

At the same time, we read the Bible for so much more than information. We read it for transformation. We read it because God speaks to us in and through the Bible not so much to re-educate us as to re-create us, to renovate us in life, mind, and heart. In the beginning, God spoke, and creation came into being. In Jesus, God spoke to re-create us, to give us new being. The chief, definitive, authoritative way God speaks to us now is in and through the Bible. The primary purpose of God’s speaking to us in and through the Bible is to transform our life, mind, and heart into the likeness of Jesus. The power that God gives and that we receive for this is the power of the Holy Spirit, shaping us in and through the living Word incarnate (Jesus) and written (the Bible).

The question then is whether we read the Bible. To be sure we read and hear the Bible when we come to worship. This is good, very good. At the same time, we need to read it more. We need to read it on our own frequently, regularly, even daily, outside of church, outside of Sunday worship. We need to ground ourselves in the Bible if we are to grow in likeness to Jesus. Let each of us commit, then, to read the Bible – truly, deeply, regularly – that we may live in Jesus, that we may be rooted and built up in Jesus, that we may be established in the faith, according to Jesus.