Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Scripture?

One of the most profound changes my life has seen since I left evangelicalism is in my relationship to the wider world: instead of a place of distractions and temptations, it has become an infinite variety of people to love and co-struggle with.

A parallel change has been in my relationship with Scripture: instead of poring over it to find answers and grow in my knowledge of God, it has become a place where I can meet with Jesus to draw inspiration for radical love.

Growing up, I attended Christian schools from kindergarten through college, and we studied. The. Bible. And we studied church history. We studied Luther’s Small Catechism. We took notes on sermons. We went to Sunday School. We went to Vacation Bible School.

As I trained to become a Christian schoolteacher, semester-long classes on doctrine and on individual books of the New Testament forced us to dig deep.

(I don’t consider this a waste of time. I’m happy to be so thoroughly acquainted with the Bible.)

We were also encouraged to foster a personal relationship with God – which included “praying within God’s will.” This required a working knowledge of Scripture to enable us to tie prayer requests to Bible verses, proving to God that what we asked for was something he would definitely want us to have.

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life…” (John 5:39).

Jesus spoke these words to the Pharisees. Clearly his message was that they were wrong in thinking that the Scriptures were all they needed.

“Open Bible with pen Antique Grayscale” by Ryk Neethling is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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I don’t know how many times I read the New Testament in my fifty plus years as an evangelical – but every time, I read it already knowing what it said. I knew which passages were important, and my eyes mostly skimmed over the rest. I knew what each chapter meant, so I didn’t need to sit with them.

Scripture rarely challenges us, the ones who know Scripture so well. Rather, we use Scripture to challenge everyone who doesn’t agree with us. God, in his love and wisdom, has given us the right answers, and we are to pass them along.

Our Christian walk is already laid out: a solitary journey heavenward, eyes on the prize. Our knowledge of Scripture helps us stay on the path and resist temptation.

But for all the head knowledge we carry around, we are not terribly familiar with Jesus’ most important and radical teachings.

And so it wasn’t until I was in my 50s that I finally learned (from some of the theologians I’d been forbidden from reading) what the Good Samaritan really means (spoiler: it doesn’t mean what they taught me); I finally learned what the Sheep and the Goats parable is really about (spoiler: not what they said); I finally learned, much to my relief, that non-Christians are not all doomed.

Everything, I discovered, is different from what I’d been taught – and now everything makes so much more sense.

This God – the God I met outside evangelicalism – is the one who truly “loves the world.”

This love – the love I encountered outside evangelicalism – is the love that changes life from a solitary journey heavenward to a pursuit of justice and peace here, a bringing of heaven to earth.

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:37-40)

Keeping our noses too firmly planted in the Bible can keep us from understanding the heart of God and engaging with our world as Jesus did: with radical acceptance and love.

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FEATURED IMAGE: “Open Bible with pen Antique Grayscale” by Ryk Neethling is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Is there such a thing as too much Scripture?