02.03.10
The Most Important Book
In a series of talks given at the OCF College Conference 2009, Metropolitan Jonah had some pretty important things to say about learning and knowing the Scriptures. He said that the best book you can read for your spiritual life is the New Testament, followed closely by the Old Testament. As Orthodox Christians, he continued, we should know the scriptures inside and out, left and right, through and through. We should know them to such an extent that any Evangelical would be impressed.
It is easy, as an Orthodox Christian, to think I’m getting my quota of Scripture simply by attending the services. I mean aren’t like 75% of the services comprised of the scriptures? (I made that number up, but I think we can agree the Orthodox Services, use a lot of scripture).
This attitude is a trap. It is simply a rationalization for me to avoid reading the scriptures. I’ve tried in the past to make a habit of daily scripture reading…and always failed. Maybe I didn’t have the right translation. Maybe I needed some annotations, maybe the annotations are distracting. Now I need more “correct” annotations. Exactly how many excuses can I come up with? And the evil one simply laughs at me.
Last night I was reading about Elder Sophrony giving a disciple an obedience of reading the entire Gospel According to Saint John every day. Whew! But wait, exactly how much reading is that? By pasting the King James version into Word, using Times New Roman 12 Pt font, I get 25 pages. Not too bad.
If I am to make a habit of reading the scriptures, I need to start small, just like my prayer rule. So instead of the whole bible, I’ll concentrate on the Gospel According to St. John. And instead of the whole book, I’ll try three chapters. At 21 chapters total, that means I’ll get through it in a week.
