How do you read the Bible? How ought we approach scripture? These are two fundamental questions I find myself faced with every time I crack the cover to read for my own benefit or to study for a teaching. The Bible presents us with some interesting dilemmas. First and foremost, it is the authoritative word of God. Meaning that the text contained within it is non-negotiable. It is always insightful, confrontational, and despite what some folks may say, remains the singularly most relevant piece of literature in the world. Secondly, the Bible though inspired by God, was physically written by men. These men existed in a time and space in history, and had sophisticated thoughts and emotional struggles just like we all do. We could pick up the Bible to read it as a sort of religious historical text, full of cold hard facts and theological concepts and we would do well. But to really begin to feast on the richness of Scripture is to look through the lines and see the narrative that lies just beneath the text. When we read the Bible as a textbook we treat the writers as if they only existed in an academic sense. That they didn't have feelings and personal struggles. Reading this way I think we glance over a major part of God's word. Not just what he was communicating, but who he was communicating through. What that looked like in their day to day lives. To sum it up, reading the Bible academically is like taking a vitamin supplement when you're presented with a three course meal. This was my main reason for teaching 2nd Timothy over the past few weeks. When compared to the other Pauline Epistles, its' doctrinal and theological content is sparse and it's hard to see anything in the text that Paul hasn't stated in his first letter to Timothy or somewhere else in the New Testament. What interests me in this book is the content, and the people behind it.
Sorry to leave you kind of hanging there, but I will be post the first segment of teaching sometime tomorrow.
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