Of all the things I have ever written, there are three consecutive paragraphs I once wrote that seem to have offended more people than anything else I’ve ever written. Please understand, I really don’t like to offend people. I am committed to—even passionate about—speaking (and writing) truth with grace. My problem in the case of these three paragraphs is that I still believe the words I originally wrote.
Consequently, I will reproduce those (supposedly offensive) paragraphs for you below. But first let me make one comment for the sake of context. My goal in writing these three paragraphs was to challenge people to read the Bible regularly and frequently. I never intended to offend anyone. I wrote these words because I thought (and still think) that many of us are spiritually starving ourselves through disengagement with the Bible. My single motivation was to persuade people to carve out adequate and regular time to read God’s Word.
With that clarification in mind, I offer here the three paragraphs that seem to have offended more people than anything I’ve ever written. These come from pages 23-24 in Bible Revival: Recommitting Ourselves to One Book.[1]
Priorities are not as simple as “God first, family second, and church third.” What does that expression mean anyway? Every time I have to choose between reading my Bible and spending time with my children, should I read my Bible? No. Priorities aren’t based upon a simple hierarchy; they require the proper balance of activities in relationship to one another. But it is a fitting question to ask: for a person who is working full-time, what is the appropriate quantity of time that should be spent (on average) with one’s spouse or children, in house or yard work, exercising and resting? How much time should you devote to building relationships with unbelieving neighbors or serving in your church? It is not as simple as “God first, family second, church third.” Priorities need to be weighed.
Let’s grant for the sake of discussion that the exact balance of priorities will vary somewhat from person to person. Does this mean that we can weight our priorities any way we want? Absolutely not. “Meditating day and night” on God’s Word is something that everyone must do. It is basic to the Christian life. It seems to me, then, that in any weighting of priorities the following scenarios are out of bounds:
- More time watching television than reading/studying/memorizing God’s Word.
- More time social networking or texting than reading God’s Word.
- More time playing video games than reading God’s Word.
Almost everyone I know spends more time on one of these activities than they do reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible. Shall we call this anything other than what it is? We don’t like to talk about sin, but this is sin for sure. James says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). We need a revival of the Bible. And many of us need to repent of our misplaced priorities.
[1] Do you feel like you need to do some soul searching related to your engagement with the Bible? Can I recommend that you pick up a copy of Bible Revival: Recommitting Ourselves to One Book and carefully consider your current approach to interacting with God’s Word? Better yet, read it together with a study group. Discussion questions are included.
Kindle Afresh 
Hi Kenneth, many thanks for this, a forceful reminder of how we so often waste time on other things besides spending time in God’s word. The one about TV certainly struck a chord with me.
My question relates to bible reading versus prayer – which takes priority in the use of our time, especially as many would make prayer to be our number one priority? Most people seem to answer this question by simply saying that the two should be combined – i.e. that our reading of the bible should lead to prayer a la Don Whitney ‘Pray the Bible’.
I understand this response and largely agree with it, but still wonder whether this fudges the issue slightly. My experience is that I like reading and therefore, comparatively speaking, I find bible reading (when I get round to it!) relatively easy. However, when I try and pray, I find it a most difficult struggle to keep going for any length of time.
I’ve often wondered whether the difficulty of the one compared to the other is related to the spiritual effectiveness of prayer versus bible reading i.e. the devil will try and distract us harder from prayer than from reading our bibles, and therefore, if we only have a set amount of time, we should prioritise prayer: of course the devil would rather we didn’t do either.
I also think about our Lord when he went out to pray. Although he’d obviously memorised a lot of scripture, he wouldn’t have a personal bible to read from and would presumably have to wait till the weekly reading of the OT at the synagogue to hear scripture read.
Kind regards
Chris Jones
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Thanks so much for commenting, Chris! I wouldn’t ever want to pit Bible reading against prayer since both are so important. Along with Christian fellowship and outreach, those are two of the four (in my opinion) essential Christian disciplines for growth in Christ. In my own life I try to balance my time between the two, carving out time for both. But, like you, I find Bible reading easier than prayer. You may be correct that the difficulty in prayer has to do with the spiritual-warfare dimension of prayer, but I’m unsure. It’s good to hear from you! I hope things are well in your life.
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Many thanks for your response Kenneth,
Kind regards,
Chris
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Does the phrase “meditating on Gods word” limit itself only to the reading/memorizing/studying the Bible? Personally, I spend most of my time with the Word reflecting on my own life and how the teachings of the Bible are convicting and guiding me. However, I’m not actively in front of God’s Word, I am using my memory of God’s Word. Usually because I am driving, showering, cleaning, or exercising. I believe this is the most accurate definition of “meditating”, especially considering that the church has been doing this for thousands of years due to the oral tradition of scripture.
I think that actively reading the Bible is extremely important, but for two reasons I think that limiting the amount of the Bible that I’m reading is good for me. The first reason is that the Word is so life giving that if I’m reading the Word for more than a couple of chapters at a time, I don’t fully dive into it and don’t get everything out of it. I can easily become complacent and the words become mundane. The second reason is that the purpose for which I read the Bible is to help us understand and remind us of who God is and the apply that to the way which I live my life. I need time away from the word to reflect on my own life and the way that I am living it.
Are there any ways that I have been mislead or any ideas I have that are untrue?
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Thanks for your comment, Gavin. What I can’t tell from your comment is how much Scripture you have memorized. If, say, you have memorized multiple books of the Bible, or at least multiple chapters–I’m writing a book on Scripture memory right now so have been thinking a lot about this–meditating on Scripture from what you know in your head is excellent. You also are correct that meditation in the Bible presupposes memorization. But if you are saying that you generally know “principles” that are derived from the Bible, or a verse here and there, I would encourage you to spend more time actually reading in the Bible itself. As to speed of reading, I try to incorporate broad reading sometimes, and also to find ways to study narrow passages more closely and deeply (that is, slow reading). I hope this was helpful. Thanks for commenting.
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Convicting, Not offensive. Thank you.
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This post and the following comment discussions have been one of the most convicting and edifying posts I’ve read on your blog. Amazing how fast I can slip on discipline!!! Thank you.
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