(This is another of the articles I wrote for the Cross, the publication of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. It deals with one of our three disciplines (Prayer, Study, and Service). But it speaks to the study of the Bible in a wider context too, so here it is.)
Prayer, Study, Service. We hold to these three central values as Brothers Andrew. I’ve had reason lately to do some thinking about study.
I have a friend who has a real message to preach on Grace. He’s not an Episcopalian, so he can’t be a Brother, but he gets Grace and he preaches it in an evangelical setting where so many of the people he knows have been wounded by churches that say, in effect, “Grace is great, but….” and then dump law and condemnation on them.
He has asked me to serve as an editor of sorts for his new blog. He wants another set of eyes on what he writes before he posts it so that he says what he wants to say. He knows that I get his heart, so I guess he trusts me to say, “Um. Do you think you could say this another way?” (Believe me, having published a book and had editors poring over my work, I know how hard it is to let someone else critique the outpourings of your heart!)
My friend is smart. He loves to read, loves to study, loves to think. And because he’s a part of a conversation about “grace” that is really controversial in his part of the Body of Christ, he also likes to debate. As I’ve begun to look more carefully at what he’s writing, I’m aware that there’s a danger to study. We can study to win arguments, instead of studying to win hearts.
Why do you study? (I’m assuming that, as a dedicated Brother, one who’s reading the Cross, that’s a part of your life!) Do you study so that you can win arguments? So that you can tell others what the Bible says they should do? Do you “Study to show thyself approved..” as the King James Bible unfortunately translates it? (The anachronistic sense of “study” from the time of that translation bears almost no relationship to the second of our three disciplines.)
There’s another way, another reason to engage in Study. It is found in Ezekiel, (3:3) where God instructs Ezekiel to “eat” the scroll that he is given. When he does, the Word that he takes in is “sweet” to him. To me, this is about studying so as to internalize the “sweetness” of God’s love for us. It “sweetens” our words to others, draws them toward the honey of God’s embrace.
I know more about the impossibility of doing Kingdom work while studying for the wrong reasons than I wish I did! I was really good at thinking my way through things without experiencing the sweet aroma of the Author’s Presence. I could argue my way out of almost anything, but I couldn’t attract others to Jesus or the Father. After a very difficult period when I came face to face with that reality, God graciously taught me how to read His Word so that I might find Him, not my next debating point.
When you study, does your heart grow strangely warm? If not, I’d encourage you to ask yourself why not. Study can be like eating honey. Why not pursue that for yourself?
