The study of the Bible

     This past week the spiritual discipline we studied in our class was that of study. First of all I am going to use the definition of study given by Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline: "Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction." There is the initial experience of learning or finding something for the first time where you draw your first conclusions. "When this is done with concentration, perception, and repetition, ingrained habits of thought are formed." There are four steps involved in the discipline of study: Repetition, Concentration, Comprehension and Reflection.

     Study in the context of a Spiritual Discipline is employed in the reading of the Bible. The discipline of study is different from the one of meditation. Meditation is devotional and study is more analytical. There are still things that can be taken to heart yet it is from a analytic approach.

     I decided that the way I would employ this during this week was to repeatedly read 1 Corinthians 10:13. We were encouraged to do this reading twice a day for five days. I followed this for the most part but I did forget to do it one of the days. Thus I ended up reading the text a total of about 8 times. Each time I read the passage, different aspects of the passage stood out to me or I was able to understand it at a deeper level.

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

     As I read this passage for the second or third time I began to focus on the part of the passage that is not preached on often and seems to be very much overlooked. "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." This actually applies to the discipline of study and of meditation. We see Jesus, we see God through the revelation we have in nature and in the Scriptures. This is as if they represent the mirror in which we can see Jesus and God and yet someday we will actually get to see them face to face!! I was a little confused as to how it is connected to love but then I realized that God is love and the only thing that will remain for eternity is God and love, the very point the passage is trying to make. Thus we need to take into account these truths which are revealed in scripture in order to better understand God with what we do know and realize until the day we see Him face to face and fully understand love.

     I found that overall I was able to better understand this passage and not only this but I found that the passage came to my mind at random times throughout the following days. I really liked how the repetition of the passage opened up my eyes to new things and expanded my understanding of a passage as a whole. I hope to employ this method of reading my Bible throughout the rest of my life.