Ryan&Amber2013
Puritan Board Senior
I didn't really know how to title this thread, but it's something that has been on my mind and I couldn't find many resources on the internet about the topic.
I have been around quite a few people recently that are of the mindset that because we have the Spirit of God, we don't have to regularly seek other people's interpretations of the Bible, but we mainly need to be in the scriptures ourselves and see how God is interpreting the Bible through his Spirit within us. So these people don't really read commentaries or listen to pastors' sermons. Instead, they go straight to the Bible and basically just bathe in it.
I study the Bible on a daily basis, and I have a solid spirit of discernment when it comes to theological matters, but it seems like my preference is to sit under godly preaching and regularly listen to sermons. I tend to get more out of sermons it seems then going straight to the Bible. Am I wrong for thinking this way? I definitely agree that I need to have personal first hand experience with the Bible, and I do read it on a daily basis, but I think I appreciate more so listening to a person who has in a sense mastered understanding the Bible, hearing how he can correctly teach how to apply it and understand it.
I guess I just don't want to have this sense of guilt for not always wanting to go straight to the Bible and bathing in it as if something supernatural is going to happen in helping me to understand it better. Honestly, I have studied the Bible very much but oftentimes I am very much confused in my understanding of it because of contextual differences, cultural differences, language differences, and other differences that make it difficult for common people to really feel competent with the book. The bible really is a very challenging book, and I think in our humbleness we can all admit that no matter how much we study it.
Reading the Bible for myself is very important, but I think I gain more from listening to sermons by sound preachers. Is this wrong?
I have been around quite a few people recently that are of the mindset that because we have the Spirit of God, we don't have to regularly seek other people's interpretations of the Bible, but we mainly need to be in the scriptures ourselves and see how God is interpreting the Bible through his Spirit within us. So these people don't really read commentaries or listen to pastors' sermons. Instead, they go straight to the Bible and basically just bathe in it.
I study the Bible on a daily basis, and I have a solid spirit of discernment when it comes to theological matters, but it seems like my preference is to sit under godly preaching and regularly listen to sermons. I tend to get more out of sermons it seems then going straight to the Bible. Am I wrong for thinking this way? I definitely agree that I need to have personal first hand experience with the Bible, and I do read it on a daily basis, but I think I appreciate more so listening to a person who has in a sense mastered understanding the Bible, hearing how he can correctly teach how to apply it and understand it.
I guess I just don't want to have this sense of guilt for not always wanting to go straight to the Bible and bathing in it as if something supernatural is going to happen in helping me to understand it better. Honestly, I have studied the Bible very much but oftentimes I am very much confused in my understanding of it because of contextual differences, cultural differences, language differences, and other differences that make it difficult for common people to really feel competent with the book. The bible really is a very challenging book, and I think in our humbleness we can all admit that no matter how much we study it.
Reading the Bible for myself is very important, but I think I gain more from listening to sermons by sound preachers. Is this wrong?