What Good Is the Bible and What Do We Do with It?
The Bible declares itself to be words inspired by God to help us know him and how to live for his glory and our good. So, if the Bible is true (and if you're wondering, start with this essay), we need to read, understand, and live it. Check out this critical statement.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV)
Those two verses tell us two things about the Bible. First, God's the author (“God-breathed”). Second, it's helpful to our lives (”useful”).
It then tells us the purpose of the Bible is to equip us for life and service (“every good work”). How does it do that? Four words show the four ways:
"Teaching" means showing us what to believe.
"Rebuking" means showing us how not to behave.
"Correcting" means showing us what not to believe (more woodenly, to make it straight again).
"Training" means showing us how to behave (more precisely, child guidance).
So, we see that the Bible was written by human authors led by God to write what would help our lives, showing us how to behave and not behave and what to believe and not believe.
None of that means the Bible is a bunch of lists or wise sayings or statistics. It’s not a collection of do’s and don’ts. It’s a story.
Robert Webber was an influential professor at Wheaton and the author of a great book (Worship Is a Verb). In another work, he explained the story component of the Bible this way:
“So I invite you to read the Bible,” he said, “not for bits and pieces of dry information [pieces in a puzzle], but as the story of God’s embrace of the world told in poetic images and types.”
(Robert Webber, The Divine Embrace (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 128.
If we fail to recognize the Bible as a story, the Bible won’t make sense. We'll turn it into a confusing list of rules and regulations, and nothing will ruin our walk with Christ more than that.
Here's how I outline the Big Story of the Bible, and I have seen others do it similarly:
Creation (Genesis 1)
Corruption (Genesis 3-6)
Catastrophe (Genesis 7-11)
Covenant (Genesis 12-Malachi)
Christ (Matthew 1- Acts 1)
Church (Acts 20-Revelation 20)
Consummation (Revelation 21-22)
We need to study to understand more about those categories, but just knowing them helps us begin to see the flow. Scot McKnight reveals how the Big Story and biblical interpretation work together. He helps us see how the Big Story comprises smaller stories (he calls them “wiki-stories”). See his book, The Blue Parakeet.
Now we have a good idea of what the Bible is (God’s revelation of himself and his ways), what it's for (to transform us and equip us for good work and good life), and we have a strong start to understanding it (we see the Big Story).
Understanding the Bible requires interpreting the Bible.
Don’t forget that a significant part of being a Christian is to get better and better at the task of interpreting the Bible.
It was written for us but not to us.
We don't instinctually relate. It was written to different people in different cultures in different places and even with different languages than we share. Which means we have to translate and interpret to understand.
Don’t forget what we do after we understand: we live it out!
As James said,
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (James 1:22).
We change our beliefs and behaviors as God reveals himself and his ways to us. We learn to live better and to love him more. And that's worth the effort.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor during the time of Hitler. He died for his faith and changed the world through his example and teaching. Here's something he wrote in Mediating on the Word, translated and edited by David Mel Gracie (Cowley Publications, 1986):
“Because I am a Christian, therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God's Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me. I can only move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the Word of God. And, as a Christian, I learn to know the Holy Scriptures in no other way than by hearing the Word preached and by prayerful meditation.”
May his tribe increase!