Episode Transcript
Jon: We live daily in the truth of God's word. And that is what shapes and governs our life. If someone finds hope and encouragement and desires to spend time in his word, engaging in it more in that way, they have every right, joy, and freedom to do so. And we would say, “Praise God for your time to be able to do that.”
But, we have to emphasize what God's word emphasizes. I've had people say that if someone does not want or is not willing to read their Bible daily, they should question their faith.
Here is my struggle with that. We long for the word of God. We want to see it. We want to know it. We want to believe it. But the act of reading God's word is never a litmus test, and it should never be a barometer of one's maturity because when Paul describes a mature Christian in Christ, he describes the fruit of the spirit: patience, meekness, long-suffering, gentleness, sacrificial love. That's a mature Christian. But often, it's the amount of time and longevity one has spent reading a particular book, and that's not evidence of maturity.
Justin: Here's something I think is a dead giveaway we've gotten this twisted. If you were to ask a person, “What's the Lord teaching you these days?” How would people answer based on how they've been conditioned? They think that what you're asking is a super subjective, individual question and that they need to come up with some kind of insight that they’ve gained through their own personal time.
Rather than saying, “Well, my pastor preached James five on Sunday,” or “My pastor preached the parable of the good Samaritan on Sunday, and I'm learning more of what it means - that the Lord is faithful and how there's healing in the confessing of sin.” Or, “I'm learning more of the distinction between the law and the gospel, and I'm seeing how God's law works in more ways, and I'm seeing how the gospel is in the declaration of God that I am just, because of Christ.” You can't answer like that because it's looked at as, “Oh, you're talking about what you learned in church on Sunday. No, I mean, I need some personal insight that you've gained in your personal life.”
It shouldn't be that way. We're told in the scriptures that it's a good thing to meditate on God's word. And it's a good thing to understand and to believe God's word and to meditate on it. What does that mean? Meditation, in our context, either implies some kind of Eastern religious practice or quiet time. In reality, that means to live a life where all of your life is lived in light of the truth of God's life.
