| How You Must Not Read the Bible – 1 Bible Reading: Ephesians 3
I once scored 68 in a computer science course I took when I was in the university. As soon as I saw my score on the notice board, I immediately became sad and started lamenting. To my greatest surprise, I saw a friend who scored 42 and he was seriously jubilating. To quench my curiosity, I went to him to inquire the reason for his celebration. After chatting with him for sometime, I realized that what led to the difference between my reaction and that of my friend was our motive for reading. My friend’s dad already had a ready-made company waiting for him to come and occupy, and so his father just wanted him to have the ‘school experience’. My motive for reading was to be much grounded in the subject and also prove that by having a distinction in the course. No wonder what I defined as ‘poison’ would be gladly celebrated as ‘meat’ to my friend.
In a similar manner, there are millions of Christians reading the bible regularly, but one thing that distinguishes the effect it has in their lives is their motive for reading. This motive is usually defined unconsciously and it becomes the driver whenever they pick up their bibles. I have noticed several motives why Christians read their bibles and I will share some of them with you. To be candid, I lived like a bad Christian for over 10 years after I became born-again, but my life changed drastically the year I decided to read the New Testament with the right motive. I could not believe the change because I had tried many things to make me grow and gave up along the way, but this particular change I experienced came effortlessly. So bible reading is very good and can lead to rapid spiritual growth if you do it with the right motive.
Why do you read your bible? For many Christians, the reason is simple – to fulfill all righteousness. Bible reading is just seen as “one of the things a good Christian should do”. Therefore, in order to run away from a guilty conscience or not be identified with bad Christians, they read their bibles. They want to identify with the fact that ‘I have observed my quiet time today’. Some of my friends who live in bustling cities like Lagosand London have confessed to me that because they have to leave their homes very early in order to get to work by 8am, they just flip through their bible with sleepy eyes every morning. They do this day in day out and it is becoming obvious that their lives are getting worn out. I strongly believe that a Christian who reads his bible for 30 minutes with the right motive will experience spiritual growth more that someone who has been reading the same bible for 30 years in order to fulfill all righteousness. Your location or work schedule does not matter much like your motive whenever you decide to read your bible.
I know some people who also think they are pleasing God and making him happy by reading the bible. You hear them make statements like “God has been so good to me; I just have to appreciate him by giving him thanks and reading my bible”. Does a good student study his books in order to develop or help his lecturer? Then when we pick up our Bibles to read, we should remember that it is time to enrich ourselves and not a time to thrill the father; it is primarily for our own good.
I Samuel 16:7 – “… man takes note of the outer form, but the Lord sees the heart”. Beloved, let us not focus on having a form of godliness; let’s embrace the power that is experienced in reading the bible with the right motive.
– tope aladenusi
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