I’m traveling this weekend to speak in South Carolina. Please pray that Ephesians 2 would come alive to the listeners, and as a result, that they would embrace Christ more. Thank you! As I once again read Michael Reeve’s book Delighting in the Trinity, I underline this quote about his fear of how we read the Bible. He writes:
“I know, it’s a bit pedantic, but it comes from the fear that we’ll merely study the Scriptures as interesting texts instead of hearing them as God’s very words that hold out Christ and draw us to want him. For the Spirit breathed out those words, not that we might merely alter our behavior, not that we might merely know about Christ, but that, as John Calvin wrote, we might have a ‘sincere affection’ for him, that we might ‘cordially embrace him’.”
It’s easy for me to study the scriptures; after all, I have a PhD in literature. I know how to study, to dissect, to critique, and to analyze. But to approach the Bible as a book, not of texts to study but as words that lead to the Word, spurs us to love scripture and to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us this supreme affection for Jesus.