By Ed Stetzer, The Exchange blog
PAULOREAR / PIXABAY
Biblical literacy cannot exist without regular Scripture engagement
It’s all about nngagement
The bottom line is that too many Christians are simply not reading and studying their Bibles. This goes beyond simple trivia questions aimed at revealing how few facts we know about our Bibles. American evangelicals increasingly lack a spiritual depth. Our lives betray a lack of Christian character. We don’t seem to be very Christlike to a watching world. So what do we do about it?
There are several things we can do to reverse biblical illiteracy here in America. At LifeWay Research, we define Bible engagement as “allowing God, through His Word, to lead and change an individual’s life—one’s direction, thinking and actions.” When we compiled all the data from our most recent study on Bible engagement, we found this maxim to be true: Engaging the Bible impacts one’s spiritual maturity more than any other discipleship attribute. In fact, “reading the Bible” topped our list of things we found impacting spiritual maturity (followed by such things as praying for unbelievers, confessing sins and asking God for forgiveness, and witnessing to an unbeliever).
With research showing Bible engagement being so important to life change and spiritual maturity, is there any doubt our failure to read our Bibles impacts everything? The Holy Spirit works though the Scriptures, leading us to maturity in every area. That can’t happen if we are not in the Word.