Common Mistakes of Reading

Intro

Common mistakes of reading the Bible:

1. Approaching the text in the wrong way.

This is before you even get to the act of reading—you have already made a serious error.

You approach the text the wrong way when...

You bring an agenda to reading the text (to some degree this is inevitable—but what is the agenda?)

Perhaps you are looking for insight into a decision you are considering—you want that final confirmation from God!

Maybe you are trying to find a text to win that theology debate you are having on facebook

You bring a socially defined conception of right and wrong and impose that onto the text.

You come to your reading distracted or out of a sense of obligation

A worried, distracted, disquieted, flighty mind/heart will almost certainly perceive nothing of God’s worth or beauty in His Word.

A view of God is immediately arresting, it commands the whole focused strength of all of our faculties, and the absence of this absorption speaks volumes about the chaotic white noise we bring to our reading.

Reading from a sense of guilt or requirement is the surest path to drudgery.

You believe that you can read effectively in the power of your own strength

Insightful, soul-changing Bible reading is ultimately a supernatural act—it is an act of submission.

We must approach God in His Word prayerfully, and we must ask for His help, His illumination of His Word.

2. Read the Bible inattentively.

Your eyes scan while your mind wanders… or you do not think about what and why.

Maybe you are distracted, maybe you aren’t that interested, maybe you’re bored—so you fail to see

The truth is that we attend to what we delight in—we neglect what we do not—and so we often blow past beauty, and glory and depth of meaning in the text!

Examples:

Laodicea, Heirapolis, Colossae— “Lukewarm” Rev. 3:14-22

The Lord seeks to kill Moses-Exodus 4:21-26

The Law & Calf & Pentecost- , ,

Jesus Marvels—,

John’s Gospel, “It was night” (13:21-30) “One at the head and one at the feet” (20:11-14) see

3. Read the Bible haphazardly

Every day is a pick your own adventure of what random selection of Scripture you will read in order to cross “devotions” off your “to-do” list.

4. Read the Bible infrequently

5. You read the Bible superficially

6. You read the Bible proudly or academically

“this is theory or this applies to someone else…some poor wretch of a sinner probably.”