Читать книгу Learning and Living Scripture - Geoffrey D Lentz - Страница 18

I was in a Bible study group in which we were discussing the gospels. We had just read one of the many passages in which the disciples fail to understand something that Jesus was teaching them. One class member immediately responded, “How could the disciples be so stupid? How could they possibly not understand?”

This type of response is very common in Bible study groups. We look at the Bible stories from outside, from the perspective of advanced, better informed people who obviously know much better than those who were involved. When we look from that perspective, we will tend to find the things in the story that will help us justify ourselves. “We are better; they were worse. We have advanced so much since their time!”

We’re not suggesting that we need to behave precisely as the characters in Bible stories behaved. What we are suggesting is that we need to come to the Bible prepared to learn from the text as we read it. We can learn from the good and the bad, from the clear and from the unclear. Having a learning attitude, and allowing our thinking to be challenged is more important than simply learning the facts.

In order to do this we need to be prepared for the type of study we plan to do, and also to be prepared in terms of our attitude. This is why we emphasize prayer before and during Bible study, or for those who are just looking at the Bible, but are not Christians, we recommend thinking specifically about your attitude as you study. This does not mean that you must decide to agree with everything that you read. Rather, you decide to learn from their experiences, and judge their experiences from their perspective.