Biblio Recommendo

Which is better: Reading only the Bible, or reading other Christian books in conjunction with Bible study?

I have swung sharply to both sides at different points in my life. At Bible college, right after high school, I decided I wanted to read nothing but the Bible so I could form my own unadulterated opinions from it. I was reading extensively for school anyway, and my tack had its desired effect: I soon found myself linking parts of the Bible I had never pulled together before and felt parts of Scripture coming alive for the first time.

In recent years, though, I have gone back to reading Christian books at my Bible-reading time. Sometimes I even enjoy those books so much that I don't read the Bible at great length (which I would not ever recommend; I'll call it laziness). This I have found very refreshing, in that passages that I had long taken to mean one thing can suddenly mean much more, being expanded by people with deeper knowledge of Scripture, or who have found ways to link verses, concepts, and principles in much the way I did during my first deep dive in Bible school.

Now, in both of these examples, I must note that while at some point I excluded Christian books, at no time did I exclude church, sermons, special messages, seminars, or hours upon hours of talking with friends about the things of God. So, the question is not whether we should read the Bible aside from all other sources of insight or knowledge. If we are practicing Christians, we should be constantly surrounded by those. The question is whether Christian books are an aid or a hindrance.

My thought for several years was that Christian books are indeed a hindrance, but I know now that this was mostly based on the type of Christian books being shoveled toward me. Unimaginative, cliched, or application-heavy texts are prone to discourage or disgust a person seeking God.

Just because rubbish is filled with words that can also be found in the Bible does not mean that rubbish is good or helpful. And I think a good deal of Christian books make it to print despite having nothing to say (or in trying very hard to explain things that can't be said), thus tainting the field for those books that can actually help.

But, after casting all of those books aside (to each person his own, for what may help some could just frustrate others), I now want to advocate for using solid Christian texts along with Bible study.

C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller, Paul Miller, and Rob Bell are the latest fellas to bring me around, and I think their work exemplifies the best of Christian writing: practical thoughts and grand ideas spawned off the greater concepts and concrete truths of the Bible.

Bell works with principles and proverbs long taken to mean one thing and nudges his readers to see them a different way. Keller strings age-old truths into modernity, buttressing his ideas with ties to literature and reason. Miller weaves the humble walking of daily life with Bible truths many have imagined but few have lived. And Lewis, well, Lewis can in paragraphs describe entire Christian doctrines, in sentences give you a perfect example of a hard-to-live principle, and in words compel you to see both the beauty and fact of truths ever-much-more living.

Those four are my favorites right now, and they have done for me what I could have never done through Bible study alone. They deconstruct the verses I have known all my life and help me see real, living examples of how those words should shape my life. They help link together the broader themes of Scripture and show how individual directives fit into them. They make stories and commandments come alive.

The backlog of Bible learning I've compiled my whole life gets made into moving pictures when I read these Christian authors, and I am better equipped to go back to Scripture and continue studying on my own.

I would argue that what these Christian writers are doing is much what a good pastor or community group would do. We are all spreading the Bible's truth to each other, encouraging each other with it and trying to use the wisdom God has given us to help others see it better. The unique nature of alone time with God in Bible study does not mean this has to stop. We can continue to tap into what God has shown others, just in the quiet of reading.

If we read just the Bible, our understanding of it is laid only against what we already have in our heads. No matter how great our Christian background, our knowledge is incomplete. And many of us were raised by Sunday School teachers who meant well but told us stuff that's just not true.

Most of us also are constantly working through the pain, guilt, or bitterness that comes into life through sin. Our experiences color our education, and whether we see it or not, the world as we've come to see it will shape how we study the Bible. Outside sources help us fight this and instead continue to see truth for what it is, and God for Who He really is.

On top of that, we are all madly selfish creatives, and especially in modernity, quite engrossed in what is orbiting around us. Self is king no matter how many times we slay it, and the only antidote is truth. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit help us see outside of ourselves, and fellow Christians are part of that ministry.

Finally, learning from others is part of our constant journey to true understanding and seeing the world how God sees it. Bible study, the "renewal" of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), the reframing, is nothing if not God replacing eyes that look in sin with minds that understand through His view. He shows us the way as we study, and to different people He shows different illuminations of His truth. We'd be crazy not to tap into that.

This is an incomplete discussion that could use much more reasoning and better examples. I still support time just spent in the Word, and I certainly fight for prayer alone and time alone with God. But when it comes to the time set aside for just Bible study or reading, I also suggest a solid Christian book, even if it be a page or paragraph a day.

If repetition, guilt, cynicism, hopelessness, or depression have ever been part or your walk with God, it's likely you were too far inside yourself to see Him. A different snapshot of God can make all the difference in starting a walk toward full truth.