Identified with monotheistic Abrahamic religious communities, Christians in the early centuries were also accorded the style; “people of the Book”. This description does not come across powerfully and significantly to us , until we recognize that in earlier times, books and literacy were not really commonplace. A populace with a low number of elitist scholars, high illiteracy, discrimination against women and primitive market-economies; the association and identification with a book would be exceptionally weighty . These peoples’ lives were so identified and linked to; welded, not just tied, to governance by their book. To see them, deal with them and to know them; everything could be predicated by that book. That book was their real, if not public, persona, their civil identity, their religion; their life.
Time has passed by. This same description of Christians may be good only as a historical fact. Current findings will call that name, for today’s generation of Christians, a misnomer. Christians are not readily identified with the bible. We do not carry our bibles. We evade, avoid and protest the religiosity of, the necessity to be seen with bibles. We snicker at, and can be, quite uncomfortable with bible-thumping preachers. Our bibles lay in dust, if we remember where we last saw or placed them. Many bibles are sought only before the “churching” hour. Some of us are afraid to be seen to be, just so puritan, and it spoils our fashion. There is little need to actively so publicize our identities. It is incongruent with our earthly success. Carry a bible? dressed in Armani? With our latest LV? We will rather be seen, wearing a Nike, sporting the latest hand phone or ipod, or a Beemer, just not an ordinary bible.
Is “living by books” a thing, modern people do ? Consider that, for hobbyists around the globe, volumes of magazines are printed, all year round, to explain, to exposit, to spell out the "how to", together with the latest “don’ts”. Fashions are dictated for the latest in human-wear, cars, homes and every other adventure under the sun. Health literature prescribes the latest breakthroughs, regimes and methodology for food , cooking and exercise. Advertising instructs on when you have “arrived” and how to “get with it”. Professional bodies mandate complicity by generating manuals, journals, schedules and digests, to proudly fill ever-expanding libraries. Students physically force themselves to plough through volumes of texts and references, as if their lives depended on it. All governments around the world profess their own constitutions and laws. It is a fact that books circumscribe our lives; we all live by some book, just not usually the bible.
Is “living by books” a thing, modern people do ? Consider that, for hobbyists around the globe, volumes of magazines are printed, all year round, to explain, to exposit, to spell out the "how to", together with the latest “don’ts”. Fashions are dictated for the latest in human-wear, cars, homes and every other adventure under the sun. Health literature prescribes the latest breakthroughs, regimes and methodology for food , cooking and exercise. Advertising instructs on when you have “arrived” and how to “get with it”. Professional bodies mandate complicity by generating manuals, journals, schedules and digests, to proudly fill ever-expanding libraries. Students physically force themselves to plough through volumes of texts and references, as if their lives depended on it. All governments around the world profess their own constitutions and laws. It is a fact that books circumscribe our lives; we all live by some book, just not usually the bible.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life(John 6:68)
A casual stroll across the shelves in a bookstore will take us to the “chicken-soup for Dummies” section. We have been so swamped by the secular psychology and even churchmen of the same ilk, subscribe to the “5 steps from”, “7 secrets of” and “10 ways to”, “across in 30 seconds”, and the “3 minute” whatever. Chicken- soup for the less than capable, of digestion, and simplified help for dummies. This proposal and approach aggrandizes the apparently successful, accomplished expert, who has so distilled and simplified collective wisdom, in and for, a very busy world. It is inexpedient to devote hours to personal study or self-examination. Their condensed, reconstituted wisdom is the easy, intelligent choice. The band-aid is quickly morphed to become the quick-fix, touted then to be the concise, the condensed, and the complete. Such “clever” schematics have so effectively crept into and permeated our lives, that we frequently mimic the language and approach of these latest gurus and psychoanalysts.
Quiet-time is misunderstood and reduced to be a “x” minuted reading of some text, preferably in the morning, a quick prayer for the day, making an attempt to “listen” and “you’re done, see You tomorrow!” Conversion is mistaken for a one-time, if sincere, superstitious, inoculation “sinner’s prayer” rather than a continuing journey marked by grace, of on-going transformation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, through His word. Belief is divorced from repentance, and “following after” a negotiable consideration, despite the fact that repentance, is the critical proof of conviction by the Holy Spirit, the prerequisite preceding belief. To believe on His Name is not the repetition of a simple “I believe”. “Following Him” is non-negotiable, not to mention “taking up your cross”. We also behave as if, it is permissible to accommodate our own “sabbaticals” in our walk. Peter’s and Paul’s injunction to examine ourselves, to see if we are in the way continually, cannot be seen to be onerous in view of an eternity before us. We have evaded and denied the need of consistent, personal dwelling on scripture; why waste such precious time? Meditating 24x7 on scripture is pious cliché and is practically too unrealistic. The Divine’s explicit directive to so meditate on scripture is considered too archaic for modern-day.
Yet it is plainly obvious that one does not swallow one’s food, neither do we gulp choice wine. A love-relationship is not described by quick-times, quality-times or a pre-formulated get-together regulated on a time-watch. A fine, meaningful meal of choice cuisine, is not found at a drive-through. It is definitely not tabled with regurgitated food. In the Sermon on the Mount, did the Lord not teach about giving what is holy to dogs, casting pearls before swine? In the parable of the Sower, did He not say that the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a field, for merchants in search for fine pearls?
And still, we will find enough gumption to protest that it is all, so difficult, so boring, so tiresome, so cramping, demanding even, on our lives. In the interim, we are persuaded that our “busyness” is tantamount to our “being successful” and haloed. We are cheered on; to be the pace-setter, the go-getter, the work-smarter, and the consummate winner-cum-leader. We take pride in, give praise to, and with crowning glory voraciously pursue earth-bound trophies. Our presumed highly-charged personalities find little merit or warrant, for quiet, unassuming and inconspicuous dedication to the word. We can be hassled, but not by study of the word. People of the Book or people of the world?
To be “people of the book” has been regarded as trite; “Who would base his life entirely on one book? What foolishness, to declare oneself with a book? Which retard or oxy-moron would attest his entire personality and life, by a book? Is it not insane to shackle oneself to the bible? Why should a man deny and relinquish his dexterity, his genius, his spirit, his mind, to do obeisance to a book? What foolishness, to sacrifice ones independence and rationality? The brilliance and wisdom of generations, of poets and philosophers, scientists and statesmen, geniuses and prized laureates, nullified by a rag-tag bunch of lesser, unknown, mostly less educated or accomplished authors? if authors they could be called. Why? by sheer volume alone, of authors, scripts and acclaim, the bible would lie buried in obscurity. To declare the bible as relevant, inerrant and all-sufficient is preposterous.” The Christian has to go beyond mere words to invoke and defend his bible. To proof the accuracy, faithfulness and unimpeachable witness of the bible requires more than study alone. And when we do not read, much less study the bible or our lives fail the living truths, is nothing awry?
Without making the book an idol, is it not time to start, first by carrying, then carefully reading our bibles? Are we truly convinced, that our “busyness” is reason sufficient, to procrastinate the complete reading of the whole bible? Do we not, consider it strange and an embarrassment when we struggle to find the placement of some more remote texts? When will it be, when we do not have to rake our minds, to be able to recall, what we last read? How are we going to be able; to first know, to defend and live out, the tenets of our faith and salvation, when we do not know what they really are? Is life eternal so secured that we can be trivial? How do we confirm, for no-one but ourselves, our relationship with the Most High? To relate, is not about spending time together, but being together, of one being. Relating does not invite as much compulsion as love. The reality and temperature of our “love”-“relationship” with the LORD can be quite telling. Is the relationship merely a figment of our own imaginations? A recent adage is that Christians who are “so earthly good, are not much heavenly good”. James is more caustic; he calls them apostates and adulteresses!
Quiet-time is misunderstood and reduced to be a “x” minuted reading of some text, preferably in the morning, a quick prayer for the day, making an attempt to “listen” and “you’re done, see You tomorrow!” Conversion is mistaken for a one-time, if sincere, superstitious, inoculation “sinner’s prayer” rather than a continuing journey marked by grace, of on-going transformation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, through His word. Belief is divorced from repentance, and “following after” a negotiable consideration, despite the fact that repentance, is the critical proof of conviction by the Holy Spirit, the prerequisite preceding belief. To believe on His Name is not the repetition of a simple “I believe”. “Following Him” is non-negotiable, not to mention “taking up your cross”. We also behave as if, it is permissible to accommodate our own “sabbaticals” in our walk. Peter’s and Paul’s injunction to examine ourselves, to see if we are in the way continually, cannot be seen to be onerous in view of an eternity before us. We have evaded and denied the need of consistent, personal dwelling on scripture; why waste such precious time? Meditating 24x7 on scripture is pious cliché and is practically too unrealistic. The Divine’s explicit directive to so meditate on scripture is considered too archaic for modern-day.
Yet it is plainly obvious that one does not swallow one’s food, neither do we gulp choice wine. A love-relationship is not described by quick-times, quality-times or a pre-formulated get-together regulated on a time-watch. A fine, meaningful meal of choice cuisine, is not found at a drive-through. It is definitely not tabled with regurgitated food. In the Sermon on the Mount, did the Lord not teach about giving what is holy to dogs, casting pearls before swine? In the parable of the Sower, did He not say that the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a field, for merchants in search for fine pearls?
And still, we will find enough gumption to protest that it is all, so difficult, so boring, so tiresome, so cramping, demanding even, on our lives. In the interim, we are persuaded that our “busyness” is tantamount to our “being successful” and haloed. We are cheered on; to be the pace-setter, the go-getter, the work-smarter, and the consummate winner-cum-leader. We take pride in, give praise to, and with crowning glory voraciously pursue earth-bound trophies. Our presumed highly-charged personalities find little merit or warrant, for quiet, unassuming and inconspicuous dedication to the word. We can be hassled, but not by study of the word. People of the Book or people of the world?
To be “people of the book” has been regarded as trite; “Who would base his life entirely on one book? What foolishness, to declare oneself with a book? Which retard or oxy-moron would attest his entire personality and life, by a book? Is it not insane to shackle oneself to the bible? Why should a man deny and relinquish his dexterity, his genius, his spirit, his mind, to do obeisance to a book? What foolishness, to sacrifice ones independence and rationality? The brilliance and wisdom of generations, of poets and philosophers, scientists and statesmen, geniuses and prized laureates, nullified by a rag-tag bunch of lesser, unknown, mostly less educated or accomplished authors? if authors they could be called. Why? by sheer volume alone, of authors, scripts and acclaim, the bible would lie buried in obscurity. To declare the bible as relevant, inerrant and all-sufficient is preposterous.” The Christian has to go beyond mere words to invoke and defend his bible. To proof the accuracy, faithfulness and unimpeachable witness of the bible requires more than study alone. And when we do not read, much less study the bible or our lives fail the living truths, is nothing awry?
Without making the book an idol, is it not time to start, first by carrying, then carefully reading our bibles? Are we truly convinced, that our “busyness” is reason sufficient, to procrastinate the complete reading of the whole bible? Do we not, consider it strange and an embarrassment when we struggle to find the placement of some more remote texts? When will it be, when we do not have to rake our minds, to be able to recall, what we last read? How are we going to be able; to first know, to defend and live out, the tenets of our faith and salvation, when we do not know what they really are? Is life eternal so secured that we can be trivial? How do we confirm, for no-one but ourselves, our relationship with the Most High? To relate, is not about spending time together, but being together, of one being. Relating does not invite as much compulsion as love. The reality and temperature of our “love”-“relationship” with the LORD can be quite telling. Is the relationship merely a figment of our own imaginations? A recent adage is that Christians who are “so earthly good, are not much heavenly good”. James is more caustic; he calls them apostates and adulteresses!
The love of and dedication to the bible is a strong indicator, a proper barometer, for a right and living relationship with the LORD. There is probably no better temporal confirmation. No true child of His, will not love His bible. The reading, studying and obedience to, becomes living proof of the professed and sanctifying love. The reading and study means nothing, if not translated by living thereto. The bible can be likened to our Royal Charter; within its paper pages lays the security of promised provisions for a filial relationship with the Almighty; to know Him, to love Him, and to know Life. Heaven begins here on earth after our conversion, not after physical death. To know Him is to love Him. Do we know Him? Do we love Him? His word?
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him, who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption, that is in the world, because of sinful desire. (2Pe 1:3-4)
By the LORD’s grace, we will make the descript as “people of the book” a glorifying truism.
God bless.
/ckh
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