There are both secular and religious reasons why I have decided to stop reading the Bible altogether. The secular reason is pretty straight forward, that I could spend a lot more time on school and possible work in the future. I haven’t realized how much time I have delved into reading the Bible until I decided to stop on Monday January 7th, 2019. It may be discouraging for Christians to hear but I felt a sense of liberation after that day. To give you guys an account in hopes to understand why I felt that way and made such a statement, I would like to describe how I went about my “walk” with God.
I big part of my walk, is with reading the Bible. And through the years I learned that there are wrong ways to read the Bible.
In the past I was in the stupid phase of finding truth, so the first book I started with is the Bible. In reality I wanted to disprove Christianity, so I read the Bible to find all the errors. I would just say this, if you want to become Christian, reading the Bible with that mindset would not help at all. Christians believe the Bible is the Word of God and it’s filled with Truth. But having a Bible in front of you doesn’t mean you would perceive it. Giving a Bible to an unbeliever (or even a believer) doesn’t mean he would perceive it. Taking a friend to church to hear it doesn’t mean he would understand it. I read it several times but did not perceive it, I heard it several times but did not understand it. On top of that, I had an attitude that the Gospel is foolish even before I started reading it. And now I find that alarming because I know that’s the case for several people including “christians”. It rings all the more when the Bible says the same thing (1 Corinthians 1:22).
“Seek the Lord with all your heart and soul and you will find Him” ~ Deuteronomy 4:29. It really does take ALL of it. And it’s sad to say even knowing that would not help.
(while writing this in a boba shop, I overheard 2 people talking about christianity and how science makes more sense to them. I feel kinda sad)
I’d like to describe reading the Bible as spending time with God. I used to think that reading the Bible requires you to learn something spiritual or be enlightened. Though it is important to understand the Word of God, I think it’s wrong to have the mindset of reading the Bible for the sake of obtaining new knowledge. I remember one particular guy who came up to share the Bible to me (i get that a lot), He later shared that He read the Bible multiple times and that he has a problem of learning anything new since he understands everything. He asked me what he should read next, but at that time I didn’t suggest anything. Whether he knows everything about the Bible or not, reading the Bible for the sake of obtaining knowledge seems very off. This is why I’d like to describe reading the Bible as spending time with God. Christians believe God is a personal God. We are in fact created in His image so there should be some personal aspects as we devote our lives to Him as we live our lives here on earth. Though God is our master and we ought to obey (and maybe understand) every command that comes out from His mouth, God is also called a friend. This is where I give an analogy: reading the Bible is like spending time with a close friend. You don’t spend time with your friend just to learn something new about him or her, you do it because you enjoy his or her presence. You spend time with your friend because you love your friend. And as you spend time with them, you learn more about them and you create these intimate moments together. I believe this is the way we should go about reading the Bible.
After writing the previous paragraph, I originally wrote “ought to understand every command” but later changed it to “ought to obey every command”. Really, we can’t understand every commandment God gave to us. Why did God tell Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why did God tell them to march around the walls of Jericho? Iono, just do it.
As reading the Bible is like a one way communication from God to you, prayer something Christians do to help close the loop. This is something I’ve seen immense growth in my “walk” recently.
Now to the reason why I am stopping Bible. The short answer is that I have a self-righteous issue and I take pride in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of “alone-time” reading the Bible. However, the self-righteousness and pride comes up during small groups. I feel like a know-it-all in silent, feeling self-righteous because I understand things while others don’t. As I read the Bible, the one sin I think God hates the most is pride (especially pride in self-righteousness). God is the only One who is Self-Righteous. Lucifer wanted to be like God but was casted out of heaven. The serpent tempted Eve that you’ll be like God if you eat the forbidden fruit, this marked the fall of man. The gospels are filled with pharisees depicted as self-righteous, and they all fall short of the glory of God. Proverbs 16:5 - Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD. Luke 16:15 - You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God. Really knowledge puffs up while love builds up. It’s damn hard to love someone if all you think about is yourself. So this is the religious reason why I am stopping Bible (for the time being).
Arrogance
Proverbs 16:5
Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord, and he shall not go unpunished
Luke 16:15
Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.
Luke 17:7-10
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Luke 18:9-14
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”