Week 38 Matthew 22
The Lord told the Sadducees straight-up: your problem is that you don’t know the scriptures.
So the implication is pretty clear. There are two possible outcomes to bible reading:
Outcome A: I can read the bible but not know it
Outcome B: I can read it and know it.
(Outcome A is a bit tricky because – for instance – I could be reading the bible for the first time and not really get it. That’s completely possible. But even though I’m not getting it I can still be an Outcome B reader because even if I’m not getting it my basic long-range goal is to get it – eventually. It’s what I’m determined to do.)
Anyway since I want to be an Outcome B reader I’ve adopted a couple of basic rules – one is simple but the other isn’t.
The simple one is that when I’m reading the bible I try to keep in mind that it’s a non-fiction book (which needs a different mentality than if I’m reading fiction or fantasy or mythology).
The second rule is that when I read I try to let the bible tell me what it’s saying – not me tell it. (As simple as it sounds it’s a hard rule to remember and harder to do since it’s way easier for me to tell the bible what it’s allowed to say rather than me just listening to it.)
Note: quote from Matthew 22:29 (NLT)