From Shallow Snippets to Scripture's Depth

As I Was Saying is a forum for a variety of perspectives to foster faith-related conversations among our readers with the goal of mutual learning, even in disagreement. Apart from articles written by editorial staff, these perspectives do not necessarily reflect the views of The Banner.

We live in a world of sound bites, social media posts and 60-second commercials. I wondered what Lenten Scripture would sound like if reduced to a modern headline or a sound bite.

Local Man Causes Chaos at Temple Plaza; Overturns Tables in Violent Protest Against Commercialization

Eyewitnesses report tables flipped and currency scattered across the pavement. "He just kept shouting about 'his father’s house' and not a 'house of trade,'" says one stunned vendor. Money-changers are currently scrambling to recover their losses.

Local ‘King’ Mocked as Fraud During Execution; Crowds Dare Miracle Worker to ‘Save Himself’

Despite claims that he could rebuild the Temple in just 72 hours, onlookers say the man who "saved others" cannot save himself. Passersby to Chief Priests alike ask: If you're the Son of God, why are you still up there?

Doesn’t quite tell the whole story, does it?

I’ve recently concluded that this is how I’ve been approaching the Bible. I hear a short passage read on Sunday morning (sometimes it’s a chapter, usually, it’s just a few verses). My devotionals list a verse or two with a short reflection on those verses. I read a few words from the Bible and shut the book and check that off the list for the day.

The crazy thing is that God still uses those minutes. He reaches into my heart through a few words and blesses me.

Parts of Scripture or a devotional will replay in my mind when I least expect it. Several years ago when I was going through the loss of one of my siblings, a member of the church gave me a page out of a small monthly devotional that she had been reading. “This made me think of you,” she said. That page hung next to my sink for over a year, and I read it almost every day. When I later thanked her, she didn’t even remember giving it to me.

God uses even the smallest things. Short devotionals, brief passages, little gestures. (Lesson here: don’t ignore the small nudges God gives. You just don’t know what it will mean to the person you reach out to.)

However, recently I’ve participated in “public reading of Scripture” opportunities. People simply take turns reading the Bible out loud, chapter by chapter: no pausing, no long discussions of single verses, just the reading and listening to Scripture as God has given it to us.

It made me realize that we are missing out.

We’re selling God short. How many of us pick up a book, open it to a random page and just read a couple of paragraphs, and then read someone’s opinion of the paragraphs? We’d miss the whole point! We have let our fast-paced, sound-bite society take away our greatest source of comfort and strength. Busyness dulls our desire and our understanding of God’s Word.

We have easy access to God’s Holy Word and yet we ignore the treasure we have.

Going Deeper

What if we go deeper into God’s Word? Read whole chapters at one sitting. Read a whole book straight through. Read letters as letters. I know names can be strange and hard to pronounce, but we can move past the pronunciation and focus on the overall picture. Too often, we miss out on the true meat of the Scripture when we don’t take the time to read the full chapter.

Take this familiar passage from 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

When we read the entire chapter, we see why God wants us to read Scripture. The chapter’s beginning shows us the extent of sin and our enemy. Sure, we haven’t murdered anyone. But have we gossiped? Have we spoken badly about someone? Have we thought, “Well, at least I’m not like so-and-so”?

The opening verses show us our sin. Going further, the chapter shows us the challenge of false teachers and giving up when the going gets tough. All this context makes the “correcting, training, equipping” of Scripture in verses 16-17 the more needed and important.

When we take the time to read a whole book, not just bits and pieces, we get the Big Story. We are reminding ourselves of what God expects from us. We are reminding ourselves of what sin looks like and its consequences. We are reminding ourselves of how immeasurable God’s gift of grace is toward us in his only begotten Son, Jesus.

The Bible is a roadmap that shows us Jesus, the Way. It also warns us of the pitfalls and ways Satan seeks to detour us.

But this map is no good if we don’t use it—if we don’t look to it daily, even committing it to memory and taking it to heart.

Here’s our challenge. Read more Scripture. Let’s not sample bite-sized pieces. Let’s get the big picture and take in larger portions. Let’s go deeper. Study. Take the time to add extended Bible reading to your routine, not just for a season, but as a regular habit.

Even when we don’t quite understand some parts and can’t see now how it all fits together, trust that God will use his Word in your life and the lives of those around you.

We need more than headlines and sound bites. We need truth—noble, right, pure and praiseworthy. And where else will find it but the Word God has given us?

Or as Apostle Paul in Philippians 4 puts it: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. … And the God of peace will be with you. Amen.”