I think that it is quite eye-opening when you notice that something isn’t in the Bible when you really expected it to be there. So, consider caring for your soul. And then, ask yourself whether you are supposed to read your Bible to do a good job of that. What’s the right answer that we’ve all heard – and some of have passed on to others? Read your Bible – every day! However – and this can be quite surprising – I have yet to find a verse or theme or pattern in the Bible that calls for the saints to give themselves to Bible reading, daily or otherwise. If such a practice is a key to a healthy soul you'd expect to see it called for in Scripture – and that fairly clearly. But it's not there.
Consider Psalm 119. This is a psalm that extols the glories of the Scriptures as God’s instruction for living. You'll find exhortations about keeping it, treasuring it, meditating on it and learning it. But you'll never find the call to 'read it' or anything like that. The Bible does not command the saints to read their Bibles.
If this is true, then how are we to care for our souls?
Consider the other end of the spectrum. What you do find lots of times and in lots of places? The call to prayer. There's the verse that teaches us to 'pray without ceasing'. Then, there’s Jesus' statement, 'when you pray…'. There are also examples of people who prayed. Besides the obvious example of Jesus, James refers to Elijah as a praying man and calls the saints to imitate him. And then, there are lots of examples of prayers. Most of the Psalms are prayers. And don’t forget the Lord's Prayer which is presented as a model for us to follow. It's pretty clear that the saints are to pray.
This is why I said in an earlier post that one key discipline for a healthy soul is prayer.
Now, an important question. Does this mean that we need not care about getting as much Bible into us as possible? Are we to forget about Bible intake?
I hope that the answer is obvious. 'No!' It’s true that the Bible doesn't command believers to read it. But that’s not to say that Bible intake is unimportant. The issue here is not about the importance of getting as much Bible into your soul as possible. The issue is about how to go about doing that.
There’s a theme from Scripture that deals with how the saints are to get more Bible. Here are some expressions of it.
Then [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24:7
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them. Joshua 8.34,35
So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8.2,3.
The Bible prescribes a way to get lots of Bible, and it is a way that has not been stressed nearly as much as personal Bible reading: weekly worship with the saints.
God knows that we need the Bible, lots of it. But instead of commanding that we read it on our own He calls the saints to assemble to hear the Word read and explained. The prescribed way of getting lots of Bible is not solo reading but weekly worship with the saints.
This explains why I wrote that the care of a soul includes these two Spiritual disciplines: daily prayer alone and weekly worship with the saints. I suspect that the notion that personal Bible reading is what really counts for a healthy soul comes from the cultural influence of American individualism. That's why we expect to find that practice commanded in the Bible. This is another indication that God views us as a group as well as individuals – and maybe more as a group than as individuals.
All of this says something about the role of a pastor as Bible teacher of his church and the structure of a worship service. It seems to me that a pastor should imitate Ezra, the scribe.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7.10
Study it, do it (put it into practice) and then teach it. Imitating Ezra in these things is indispensable if one is going to be a faithful pastor. And that makes sense when you realize that the primary way that the saints are to get lots of Bible is as they assemble on Sundays to have it read and explained to them by their pastor.
Then, consider what Paul wrote to Timothy as he pastored a church.
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 1 Timothy 4.13
This says something about what happens during Sunday worship services. It seems that there should be a good bit of 'the public reading of Scripture'. My sense is that there is less and less of this these days. If that’s true, it would be a shame.