Moving Beyond Bible Study

When I say that we need to move beyond Bible study, I'm not suggesting that we should spend less time, or expend less effort, in studying God's Word.  I believe in Bible study.  My undergraduate degree is in Bible and a significant part of my graduate study was focused on the New Testament.  I spend a lot of time with a passage before I preach on it.  The problem is that early in my Christian life I thought studying the Bible would lead, in a fairly direct way, to spiritual growth.  It seems reasonable; after all, the Bible is God's Word, so coming to a better understanding of it should enable one to live in greater obedience.  And since prayer is responsive speech, a reply to what God has spoken, it seems natural that reading and studying the Bible should lead us into prayer.

I quickly discovered that it doesn't work that way.  In fact, studying the Bible can even adversely affect our spiritual lives, as B.B. Warfield notes in his essay, "The Religious Life of Theological Students:   "There is certainly something wrong with the religious life of a theological student who does not study. But it does not quite follow that therefore everything is right with his religious life if he does study" (Kindle Locations 62-64).  He warns that it is possible to study theology in a purely secular spirit and then goes on to ask: "Do you prosecute your daily tasks as students of theology as "religious exercises"? If you do not, look to yourselves: it is surely not all right with the spiritual condition of that man who can busy himself daily with divine things, with a cold and impassive heart" (Kindle Locations 74-76).  The problem he's addressing is familiar to anyone who's approached Scripture and theology in an academic setting.   We too easily imagine that because we understand an idea and believe it with our minds, we have the experience or quality we’re studying about.  But the remedy is not to turn away from academic study; the answer, he says, is to approach theology as a religious exercise, to turn one's study into meditation, prayer and worship.

Meditation on Scripture is often a struggle in our hurried society, but it's worth the investment of time and effort.  The best definition I've heard was given by a psychiatrist friend named Lowell Mann, who has since gone to be with the Lord.  I was teaching a Sunday School class on prayer and when I asked a question about meditation, he responded, "meditation is like worry; when we worry we think over and over about the same thing, looking at it from every possible angle."  So, to meditate on a passage of Scripture is simply to "worry" over it.  Dwell on it, think over and over on the words, look at it from a variety of angles.

That's really enough in itself, but for those who, like me, enjoy an ordered structure for doing this, I recommend a four-step approach called Lectio Divina (or divine reading).  The first step is simply to read a short passage, coming to the Word with the expectation that God is going to speak.  Read attentively, without rushing, then go back and read it again.  It's often helpful to read out loud, as this involves more of the senses and helps break the tendency to read passively.  "We should read them [the words] not in agitation, but in calm; not hurriedly, but slowly, a few at a time, pausing in attentive reflection.... then the reader will experience their ability to enkindle the ardor of prayer” (St. Ambrose, quoted by Mariano Magrassi, Praying the Bible, pp. 105-106).

After a brief pause, read the passage again, and stop along the way to meditate.  Allow yourself to be impacted by the Word by giving it time to sink in. You can reflect imaginatively, especially if it's a narrative, or you can simply dwell on the words, letting them enter more deeply into your mind.  “First, we must create within our hearts a flexible space of resonance, so that the Word can penetrate its deepest parts and touch its innermost fibers....  meditation is compared to the assimilation of food.... We ponder each word in order to grasp its full meaning, imprint it on our memory and taste its sweetness, find joy and nourishment for our soul” (Magrassi, p. 109).

As we continue listening to God in His Word, we begin to respond with prayer, the third step.  In the previous step, we allowed God to speak to us; now we reply to what we've heard.  “In order to pray, we do not need to rack our brains, artificially evoking interior acts, thoughts or excessively refined affections. All we need to do is react in the presence of the text with free or spontaneous prayer. And when this spontaneous outpouring stops, we return to the text for fresh nourishment....  “And when spiritual dryness prevents us from doing anything else, it is enough to address to him the same words God has spoken to us, making certain that our mind and heart are in harmony with them. This will not be simple repetition because that word, having touched my life, is rich with new meaning” (Ibid., pp. 114-15).

When you approach the end of your time, move to the fourth step, which is to sit quietly in the presence of the text.  Rest in what the Lord has said to you. Simply be present before Him with His Word, silently waiting on Him, even though nothing may seem to be happening.  It's enough to have listened to God's Word and then to sit before Him in silence: "Mostly, however, it is a matter of persevering with the low-impact landscape of quiet prayer and following our ordinary, obscure and laborious round....  We are not to curtail our devotion because it seems to accomplish nothing" (Michael Casey, Toward God, p. 167).  Many writers also recommend choosing something to continue dwelling on throughout the day.

It's possible to read through a book of the Bible in this way, a little at a time.  Or choose a passage that is saying something you need to hear at the moment.  But take it slowly; there’s no rush to get through the material. Also, don’t be rigid in applying the four steps. In practice, you will tend to flow back and forth between them, rather than going systematically from one to the next.  The four steps describe what we're doing but not necessarily the order we follow in doing it.