The Bible in the Reading Diet of a Pastor

[frog]

I was listening to a talk from Ian Murray on the study habits of a minister and he said something to the following effect:

There is no question about which book comes first. One volume stands apart. One book is divine revelation. One book has the words of eternal life. One book has the words by which we shall be judged at the last day. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate in day and night.

As the Bible becomes central to our thinking and speaking and living, it is that way and that way only that every great movement of the Spirit has originated. Martin Luther was said to have read his Bible more earnestly than anyone had read it for a 1000 years. The reformers were Bible men.

Be much in prayer and make yourself deeply acquainted with the Scriptures. Give yourself to the Bible, be sure you know it, have it in your mind and heart. It’s so easy to read about the Bible rather than actually studying the Bible itself. We ought to be ashamed that we don’t know God’s word better.

What would this look like in the life of a minster? What is the place of the Bible in the reading diet of a pastor? What proportion of our energy and time should be devoted to studying Scripture itself rather than reading good books about the Bible?

P.S: Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask the question, I wasn’t sure which forum to place it in.

 

[Ed Walsh]

Some thoughts that immediately come to mind.:

The Bible is the Word of God. All Christians should; ministers must know it by heart.

Deuteronomy 17:18-19​

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.​

And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,​

Joshua 1:7-8​

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.​

Read, reread, and sing the Psalms. Psalm 119 has 176 verses. All but about four verses are about the Psalmist's praise of the Law of God.
As shown in the passage below, the Bible, memorized and meditated on, will give you more wisdom beyond at least these three classes of people.
Your enemies, your teachers, and the aged.

Psalm 119:97-100​

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all day.​

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.​

I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.​

I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.​

I could go on and on.

 

[frog]

As I read the works of other men, say John Owen's "Communion with God", they see things that I have not seen in the Bible. They seem to have a much better sight and their eyes are opened by God to view wondrous things (Ps. 119:18). I want to know God's life-giving Word more and more and see its riches, though this means I feel somewhat torn, as the light that Watson or Owen has is much greater than mine. As a result, in order to see more of the riches of God in the Bible, I have a leaning towards spending more time in reading good books about the Scripture rather than studying the Scripture for myself. On the face of it, this is the quick and easy path to seeing more. But it is second-hand sight. And practically, when I contemplate the Puritans, I hear they did not have large libraries and that they studied much. This gives the impression that the bulk of their time reading and thinking was from the very source of divine truth, the Word of God itself. Sadly, I do not know their pattern of study and the proportion of it and I am merely speculating. How did these men come to have such insights into God's Word? Maybe this is a question for a separate thread. I want to see as much wonders in the Bible this side of glory as I can. To be the best equipped to mine it for gold.

I wonder about the extent to which reading lots of their work is counter-productive when more time could be spent in the Bible. When I think on passages like the ones above, Psalm 119:97-100, I am inclined towards reading only an hour (or maybe none!) a week of books about the Bible and the rest of the time to be reading and meditating on God's Word with much thinking and prayer for His help. I'm not sure how to balance this, from leaning on one side and receiving the majority of my light from other men, and the other side where with much hard work I see it straight from the source. How can I balance these?

 

[VictorBravo]

As Spurgeon said of Bunyan, we should devour Scripture until our blood is bibline.

Owen and the other Puritans could not write what they did without knowing and breathing their Bibles. Read the masters, of course, but read God’s Word more and regularly.

 

[py3ak]

There probably isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to this.

Should Scripture be fundamental and predominant? Of course. But does that mean reading the Bible more than any other book? More than all other books put together? To the exclusion of everything else? Answers will vary depending on many factors.

Until good hermeneutics are learned and internalized, we may need help in reading the Bible, as the Ethiopian eunuch found. At the same time, those who have gotten their opinions second-hand and have done no quarrying in Scripture itself often have convictions that are shakier and more subject to winds of doctrine. If your ancillary reading distracts you from Scripture, it may be good to cut down. If your ancillary reading takes you back to Scripture with more ability to engage, you're probably pretty close to where you should be.

Answers to this question need a timeframe also. I read the Bible more than any other book, not because I spend more time in Scripture than with all or any other texts every single day, but because I reread the Bible more often and more consistently. It also prevails over other literature because of the intensity of effort put into it. While there are a few books where I've read them in more than one language, or compared translations; that's been occasional, and usually limited to one or two texts. With Scripture, it's part of the study routine to look at different texts and translations.