For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Heb. 4:12
Reading Scripture, for me, can often feel like drinking from a fire hydrant. There’s just too much coming at me all at once. If I’ve learned anything over the years of studying the Bible it is how to slow down the process of engaging with Scripture. One of the ways I do this is by simply working with smaller portions at a time. *
Theologians refer to these small sections of Scripture as “pericopes” (pronounced “perri-cuppays” with the emphasis on the second syllable). They represent a block idea or selection from a larger section or chapter. The NIV, for instance, helpfully divides its chapters under various pericope titles.
My goal these days is to go deeper rather than wide in my study of God’s word. I miss too much when I try to read larger sections of Scripture. Instead I choose a smaller portion and read it over and over again as I prayerfully commune with God over these words. Often I will find myself returning to the same passage (or verse) again the next day if I feel there is more that God wants to speak to me about.
Reading Scripture has become more a matter of getting to know the living and active presence of Christ in His Word than trying to pull meaning or insight from these texts. I treat each of these sections of Scripture like an icon that I am gazing at, searching for the proverbial “cracks” where the light comes through. Each pericope is like a room that is waiting to be entered. And what I am looking for in those rooms is not to study the architecture or furnishing but to better know the Person who lives here.
Sometimes I experience that Presence as no more than a flicker of light or peace that passes over my heart while I am reading. The Spirit graces me without my having any immediate understanding of why that particular phrase or idea has touched me as it has. I make a note of it and return to the same word or verse over and over again, asking God why my heart seems to be responding as it is. I try to be sensitive to the deep, underground resonances taking place in me as I hover over the words on the page.
Most of what I read, of course, goes over my head, but that’s ok. I’m communing with the living and active Presence of God’s Word. And faith tells me that, whether I understand it or not, this Word is nevertheless ministering to me. What I want most is for it to somehow touch my heart—that it will not come back empty but will accomplish whatever the Lord set it out to do in my life.
Because I often feel stumped by Scripture I spend a lot of time asking God questions about the texts I am reading. It would be foolish for me to too quickly write off something it says as irrelevant just because I don’t readily understand it. Wisdom gives the text the benefit of the doubt. And faith allows me to sit longer with a difficult passage rather than prematurely dismiss it. As Martin Luther once said, “Every verse of Scripture is like the branch of an apple tree. You have to keep shaking it until the fruit falls off.”
Jesus told His disciples “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear” (Jn. 16:12). Knowing that to be the case, I try to be happy with the few crumbs that fall my way and not be presumptuous in thinking I should be getting more than I do. I have also come to accept that the seeming impenetrability of Scripture often has more to do with the dullness of my own heart, the diffusion of my mind, or the questionable attitude I approach this with than with any obscurity in the text itself. There is a conversion of the heart implied in how Scripture teaches me to approach it with appropriate humility.
And so I press into the Bible, confident that I am growing not only in my relationship to the knowledge of God but also to the mystery of how the Lord forms us through His living and active Word. I have long stopped assuming that right understanding is the only goal of Scripture reading. Instead, I simply present myself to its healing light and welcome whatever conversion the Lord intends for me as I submit to the effects of Scripture.
* of course reading a whole book of the Bible in one sitting, or the discipline of reading three chapters each day also have many obvious benefits.
Rob Des Cotes
Imago Dei Christian Communities
(written for May 24, 2014)
FOR GROUP DISCUSSION:
- In what ways have you perhaps “written off” certain portions of Scripture? What would it mean for you to give the Bible the benefit of the doubt when it comes to passages that you don’t understand?
- What other purposes besides growing in our understanding might God have in mind for us in drawing us to His Word?
- In what ways does your own “dullness of heart, diffusion of mind, or questionable attitude” contribute to the “seeming impenetrability of Scripture?”
FOR PRAYER: Try reading a short passage from one of the Gospels as your prayer for today. Read with your heart. Look for what resonates there. Bring your questions to God. Allow His living and active Presence within this Word to have whatever effect on you the Lord intended for this day.