Reading the Bible

Solara: Do you really read the same book everyday?

Eli: Without fail.

- "The Book of Eli"

Some Christians were deeply amazed by "The Book of Eli." I was not one of those people. I appreciated certain aspects of faith that were lifted up in the film, but on the whole I thought it was violent and didn't make the case for faith the way others would like to believe.

But it did make a case for the importance of Scripture, and bathing yourself in Scripture. One of the amazing parts of that film is the way Denzel Washington's Eli memorized the Bible, cover to cover. To him, God's Word was the most important thing. He read it daily and committed it to memory.

We don't do that much anymore. I was talking with someone the other day about the fact that we have such ready access to the Bible, but people don't commit it to memory. Sometimes we search for verses and we study, but that doesn't even happen much. People are so used to seeing Scripture passages on the screens or printed neatly in their bulletin that they probably couldn't find it in the Bible, if need be. And how many people read through the Bible daily? Or do you more likely read a verse or two printed as part of a daily devotional and call it good?

I don't have a problem with daily devotionals, but I do wonder if we've lost something. And I'm not alone. Recently the alumni magazine for my college — Biola University — pondered the "Crisis of Biblical Illiteracy." Sure, that sounds like an alarming, and perhaps alarmist, title. But think on it for a minute — is there a great deal of emphasis placed on Biblical literacy? Do we ground ourselves in the Word daily?

I'm not just pointing fingers outward here, I'm pointing them at myself. If I'm honest there are a lot of things vying for my attention, and a lot of things get more of that attention than God's Word does each day. And that's wrong. It doesn't matter if I'm pondering theology and God when doing other things. That's a great place to be, but it doesn't substitute grounding myself in the Word.

There was a time not too far in the past when people didn't have a Bible. They didn't have ready access to God's Word, and they craved it. William Tyndale and Humphrey Monmouth risked everything to bring people in England a Bible they could have, hold, and most importantly read. Monmouth lost his fortune and ended up in jail. Tyndale was executed. But they did it because of the value they placed on God's Word.

Today, most Christians proudly declare The Bible to be among their favorite books of all time, or their favorite book. But how many have read it? Would you list "A Tale of Two Cities" as your favorite book if you'd merely skimmed a handful of chapters a few times? No, you wouldn't. But we do it with the Bible all the time.

God's Word is as alive and relevant today as it was at any point in history. We just have to take the time to listen.