It's pretty silly for me to go to a steakhouse for dinner. I'm far more likely to get a burger or perhaps some pasta than I am a steak. The owners of such restaurants would probably be disappointed that I never choose the best thing that they have to offer, even though their list of choices does include a variety of entrees. Yes, the steak will cost me more, but I'm told that it's worth the price. It is true that the entire menu screams, "Get a steak" from the name of the restaurant on the front cover to the appetizers that compliment these choice cuts. But just the same, I guess I'm more comfortable with the burger. Call me a hopeless case...
There was a time when God felt a bit like the owner of a steakhouse (OK, maybe that's a stretch). But if we look at the "menu" that God has given to us, we're intended to see that the whole thing screams, "Jesus!" (Sorry, I will get past the hokey lines here momentarily). Recorded in John 5:39-40 are these words: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have eternal life. When I read this, I'm confronted with the fact that all too often many of us are not interested in having the only real main course that is being offered. The thought actually scares me a bit. Jesus was speaking to a group of people here who knew what religiosity looked like; they knew what the Bible had to say and for the most part really liked it. They even searched through it and would have likely admitted to the fact that a Messiah was a big part of what it was all about. But that was as far as they were willing to go--no steak in the belly. It is possible to enjoy many of the benefits of a steakhouse: the fellowship with others there, the nutrition that comes from the complimentary bread basket, the great aromas....without truly knowing just how great the place is and what it means to truly be a part of the association of steak-eaters.
When we know something of the Scriptures and yet don't really know Jesus, we miss all that is most important. We can take in all the communication that God has given us through His Word and never experience the communion with him that comes through knowing the One He sent. This is what Jesus was concerned about when it came to the religious people he was rubbing shoulders with. Would he have said the same things to us if we had run into Him this week? Let us ask ourselves some questions.
Why do I read (or neglect reading) my Bible? When I talk to Christians who seem to lack direction in life or say that they just aren't feeling close to God, one of the things that I tell them they need to be doing is reading their Bibles. How will they know the One they say that they want to be close to without absorbing what He has told them about Himself? We are not to read our Bibles simply to know what it says so that we can win debates or better grasp how to say the right Christian things at the right times; we are to read it with God motivation--to become closer to God Himself. And the way we can come near to God is by submitting to His Son Jesus as Lord.
What's wrong with just reading my Bible for the sake of reading it? Quite frankly, Jesus said that such activity wasn't enough. He gives the impression here that you can be quite the scholar and not get what you need the most. When Jesus said that the Scriptures bore witness about Him, he meant that the message of the Bible is essentially all about Him. After His resurrection, when He met up on a walk with some of His disciples (who were kept from recognizing Him), He went through all the Scriptures and showed how these were meant to direct their attention to the Messiah (Luke 24:27). Although this message is clear in so many ways, we show the hardness of our hearts in our lack of submission to the One we are told is our only hope.
What is at stake in our reading of the Bible in a certain way? Life. We can read the Scriptures and refuse the eternal life that Jesus says comes through Him. We can have a head full of priceless knowledge and still be lost forever...according to Jesus. We could even know Jesus in the sense of knowing information about Him but not know Him in the way He says we must know Him in order to have life. He tells us here that He Himself is the One who holds the life we can have if we come to Him. In Him is the life that we need. We must read the Bible with God motivation, or to say it even more specifically in this instance, with Jesus motivation. We read it with Him as our reason and aim.
The next time you read your Bible, what will be your reasons for doing so? Will you read it to know Jesus, to know Him in the intimate kind of knowing? This is the Christian way; this is the way of God motivation.
Dear Lord, be my Motivation in the reading of Your precious Word. Fill within me a longing for Jesus, the One all the Scriptures are meant to lead me toward. Guard me from religiosity that puts my aim on my independent personal growth instead of Your glory. In the great name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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