When Does Bible Neglect Become Sinful?

00:00:00.000 | We opened 2019 working through some important questions about Bible reading, all emailed

00:00:08.640 | in to us from you, the listeners. Thank you for your continued engagement with the podcast.

00:00:13.360 | Today's question comes from a listener in Germany named Michael. "Dear Pastor John,

00:00:18.080 | when does a lack of Bible reading become a sin? I fear this trend in my own friends and

00:00:22.440 | our Western society. We have easy access to the Bible, but I feel like many Christians

00:00:26.580 | spend little or even almost no time in the Word. A 'Christian' that reads a lot and

00:00:32.040 | doesn't act upon it is not better either. Nevertheless, when would you start correcting

00:00:36.880 | a fellow believer for not spending enough time in the Word?"

00:00:40.720 | Let's take Michael's first question as the main one. When does a lack of Bible reading

00:00:48.100 | become a sin? And my hope is that in giving a kind of triage of diminishing Bible reading,

00:01:00.120 | Michael might be able to discern when to step into his friend's life and exhort him. So

00:01:06.880 | here are my five symptoms of sinful diminishing of Bible reading. When does diminishing Bible

00:01:17.780 | reading become a sin? How might we discern when our slacking off in Bible reading and

00:01:24.260 | meditation is becoming sinful? Number one, diminishing Bible reading and meditation is

00:01:30.660 | becoming sinful where it is owing to a loss of desperation for what the Bible alone can

00:01:39.320 | give. God's Word is designed like nothing else to give us glimpses of God Himself. 1

00:01:48.580 | Samuel 3.21, "The Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel

00:01:56.540 | at Shiloh by the Word of the Lord." The Bible gives faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing

00:02:05.500 | by the Word. John 10.17. "We believe through the Apostles' Word." John 17.20. The Bible

00:02:12.900 | gives joy. "These things I speak in the world, that you may have my joy fulfilled in yourself."

00:02:18.900 | John 17.13. The Bible gives holiness. "Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth." John

00:02:25.260 | 17.17. Wherever diminishing Bible reading is owing to a loss of desperation for seeing

00:02:33.340 | God, trusting God, rejoicing in God, and holiness, as though these things don't matter or can

00:02:40.040 | be found without the Word, sin is taking hold. Number two, diminishing Bible reading and

00:02:47.860 | meditation is becoming sinful where it is owing to disillusionment with the Bible because

00:02:56.260 | it has not been pursued by faith, but rather as a performance to win God's favor. Paul

00:03:04.860 | says, "Whatever is not from faith is sin." And that includes—he said that in Romans

00:03:10.380 | 14.23—that includes Bible reading that is not from faith. Reading by faith means reading

00:03:19.940 | with a reliance on the great reality in Christ that God is 100% for us and that He will incline

00:03:29.860 | our hearts to His Word. Psalm 119.36. He'll open our eyes. Psalm 119.18. He'll satisfy

00:03:36.520 | our souls. Psalm 90.14. If we don't read by faith, we will be disillusioned. And if

00:03:44.860 | diminishing Bible reading is owing to that disillusionment, it is sin. Number three,

00:03:53.100 | diminishing Bible reading and meditation is becoming sinful where the activities that

00:03:59.300 | replace it are not experienced as the fruit of it. In other words, it's right to stop

00:04:07.540 | reading your Bible in the morning and go to work if your work is experienced as a fruit

00:04:15.420 | of what you saw of God and savored of God in the Word. God did not design the Bible

00:04:22.780 | to be read 18 hours a day so that we do nothing else. He designed the Bible as a tree that

00:04:30.740 | produces delicious fruit of living for the glory of God and the good of others. So the

00:04:37.460 | test is this. When we stop reading the Bible, is it because we are gladly experiencing its

00:04:47.980 | replacement as the fruit of it? If not, then probably our lives are not the fruit of God's

00:04:56.660 | Word but an alien tree, and our diminishing Bible reading is becoming sinful. Number four,

00:05:05.100 | diminishing Bible reading and meditation is becoming sinful where we are drifting away

00:05:10.420 | from it because we have ceased to find in it something more precious than gold and sweeter

00:05:16.500 | than honey. That's Psalm 19.10. "More to be desired are these words than gold, even much

00:05:23.340 | fine gold, sweeter than honey, and drippings from the honeycomb." This preciousness and

00:05:30.100 | this sweetness are meant to entice us back freely and joyfully to the Word so that we

00:05:39.460 | gladly say, "Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day," Psalm 119.97.

00:05:48.540 | If our Bible reading is diminishing because we no longer embrace this preciousness or

00:05:56.400 | taste this sweetness, the diminishing is sin. Finally, number five, diminishing Bible reading

00:06:05.820 | and meditation is becoming sinful where it is owing to an immature, adolescent-like recoiling

00:06:15.700 | from the traditions we saw in our parents or in our church that seemed hypocritical

00:06:22.900 | and barren. It's a mark of great immaturity in 20-somethings and 30-somethings and 40-somethings

00:06:33.500 | to refuse to do something well because your parents did it poorly, like refusing to be

00:06:42.300 | a doctor because your dad was a quack or refusing to enjoy dessert because your mom was overweight

00:06:50.200 | or refusing to listen to classical music because that's all they let you listen to when you're

00:06:54.600 | a teenager. That's idiotic. That's immature. Don't be like that. Or refusing to read your

00:07:01.360 | Bible daily because your dad did it and he beat your mom. He was abusive and he read

00:07:08.400 | his Bible. That kind of immaturity is a tactical triumph of Satan, and you don't want to be

00:07:18.680 | Satan's lackey and act like an immature, adolescent follower of the evil one. Perhaps the concluding

00:07:27.260 | word should be to all of us, if we begin to drift from reading and meditating on God's

00:07:35.320 | Word, we should say with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal

00:07:44.240 | life," John 6, 68. Amen. That's a great text to end with, Pastor

00:07:48.640 | John. Thank you. And we've now surpassed 1,300 total episodes, thanks to your interest

00:07:54.520 | and questions over the past six years and for your support as well. Thank you for sending

00:07:59.120 | this one in, Michael. You can search all of our episodes. You can read transcripts, even

00:08:03.200 | send us a question that you might have of your own, all at our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:08:11.760 | Until Friday, we transition from Bible reading to marriage and hear from a woman who feels

00:08:16.000 | like she's drifting from her husband, and she wants 2019 to be different for their relationship.

00:08:21.560 | So what will it take? It's an important question. It's up next. I'm Tony Reinke, your host.

00:08:26.640 | We'll see you again on Friday.

00:08:27.920 | [END]

00:08:28.420 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

When Does Bible Neglect Become Sinful?

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