Why do we read the Bible in church?

In a culture that loves the bright, shiny & new – the practise of publicly reading from the Bible is perhaps the most counter cultural thing we do when we gather.  There aren’t many places you can go to hear a book, several thousand years old, read from.  Even stranger is that we read it not for its insights into the past – but the present.  As someone put it, ‘Give me a candle and a Bible, and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you all that the whole world is doing’.  Why do we have such confidence?  Why are we so committed to reading the Bible in Church? There are a whole variety of possibilities - not least the command in to Timothy to ‘devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching & to teaching’ 1 Tim 4v13.  But of all the possible reasons – here are two to reflect on that we might treasure Bible reading as the high point of our meeting:

First, the ‘Clarity of God speaking to us’.

The Bible is a ‘plain book’. Not that it is boring, but God speaks through the Bible to us in a way that is understandable.  He chooses to not only create us capable of communication – but also chooses to step down to our level & communicate with us.  John Calvin put it: “God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children”.  Paul commands Timothy to simply read from the Bible, because its clarity means you don’t need to be ‘an expert’ to understand it. Anyone under the guidance of the Spirit is entitled (even obligated) to search the Scriptures to judge for themselves what it means.  The clarity of God’s word doesn’t discount your effort.  The infinite God revealing Himself to us is a big & complex subject! Even more, God communicates this way to create relationship over a lifetime, so invites us to prayerfully consider what He tells us.  But the Bible’s clarity does mean the big issue for us as we come to church is not ‘hearing the Word’, but obeying it (James 1:22-25).  As the Bible is read to us each week in church, we mustn’t beware our temptation to complicate & qualify it to the point we ignore it.  If what is read from the front is uncomfortable to put into practise, or unnatural to our thinking, or out of step with our culture – it doesn’t mean God doesn’t mean it!

A second reason is the ‘Power of God speaking to us’. 

The Bible is a ‘powerful book’.  After Paul gave his command to be devoted to reading the Bible publicly, he explains the ultimate outcome of saving both ‘yourself & your hearers’ (1 Tim 4v16).  God’s Word achieves His outcomes (Isaiah 55v11).  No other book can produce eternal salvation.  No other book speaks complete truth about the most important topics.  No other book can produce such ‘good fruit’ in the lives of those who hear & obey.  No other book can enable us to understand the mind & purposes of God.  No other book can give confidence in the face of evil, pain & even death.  The Bible is powerful.

As a church, I trust we will never stop reading the Bible publicly, no matter how strange it seems.  But, as a church, may it not be because of stale tradition – but because we treasure God’s ‘plain & powerful Word’.

In Him
Mark Smith (Assistant Pastor)