You Can’t Know Them Unless You Read Them

“He bunted himself to first, stole second, was sacrificed to third, and scored on a wild pitch.”

“He what?”

“I said he bunted himself to first, stole second, was sacrificed to third, and scored on a wild pitch.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, not having grown up in America, is this football language?”

Bunting to get on first, stealing second, taking third on a sacrifice, and scoring on a wild pitch conjures a series of images in the minds of those familiar with baseball; even those only somewhat familiar with the game will likely have some picture of a series of events – at the very least they will visualize a baseball diamond and a player moving from home plate around the bases to score. On the other hand, someone who has not grown up in a baseball country and who has had no exposure to the game will not know what the language describes – it might be American football for all he knows.

Among the many reasons to read the Bible, to have a direct experience with the Bible, is to know the paradigms, images, and (if you will) “plays” of the Bible. No matter how many books we read about the Bible, no matter how many daily devotionals we may read, no matter how many preachers we may listen to – nothing compares or substitutes for us knowing the Bible directly. Why is it that we don’t get this?

When we don’t know the Bible we succumb to frameworks of thinking that are not Biblical – we don’t think God’s thoughts. The frameworks may be religious, they may make sense, they may appeal to our intellects or emotions, they may make us feel good – but all too often they are not God’s perspectives, they are not God’s thoughts, they are not God’s ways or God’s commands. More often than not when we don’t know the Bible we eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life.

I don’t know why there is so much resistance among professing Christians to reading and knowing the Bible; I do know the sad results of us not knowing the Bible – otherwise competent men and women walk and talk as though they were blind and deaf without knowing they are blind and deaf – speaking unintelligible words and continually running into furniture and thinking nothing of it.

When baseball fans get together they have no trouble starting and sustaining a conversation because they know the game – they don’t need anyone to lead them because the game is in their blood – the game is alive in their hearts and minds. But often when professing Christians come together there is no talk of the Bible or our Lord Jesus, it is not natural for there to be such discussion, and if there is to be a discussion all too often it cannot begin unless a leader is chosen – how can this be? It can be because we know the Bible less than baseball fans know the rules of the game; it can be because others love baseball more than we love Jesus.

A baseball fan checks the scores first thing in the morning, reads box scores, checks batting and pitching statistics – many fans can quote statistics and describe games from decades ago. Would that we had a passion for Jesus and the Bible to equal the passion fans have for baseball; would that we would be as hungry for the Bible and Jesus as followers of the Red Sox are for another World Series crown.

We can’t know God’s thoughts and the flow of Biblical thought unless we read and know the Bible, unless the Bible is woven into our daily lives, unless we have a personal and direct experience and knowledge of God’s Word.

Why don’t we understand this? Why do we resist it so? Why do we make excuses?