What are your go-to Bible verses? Everybody has some; a short list of scripture quotes which seem to become relevant to daily life again and again. Depending on your church background the actual verses will vary, but we've all got a little list stored somewhere in the back of our subconscious, ready to be referred to at a moment's notice.
A few verses are particularly common on these lists. For example, try talking to a Christian who cares about justice for very long without them bringing up Micah 6 v 8: "what does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God?" Or find me a member of a prosperity-gospel church who doesn't have "a full measure, pressed down and running over" pinned to their fridge. We return over and again to certain verses because they help us to crystallise and sum up our theology in just a few words. It's only natural that we find ourselves quoting them, reflecting on them; allowing them to shape our thinking.
It's okay to have favourite Bible verses of course. That only becomes a problem when we don't actually know much more of Scripture beyond them; when that little list of favourite verses becomes the only Bible we really know. I have a sneaking suspicion that many of us are operating with a ten-verse Bible.
Just think for a moment. What are the passages of Scripture you'd turn to if someone asked you about the character of God, or the reasons for your beliefs? Where would you go if you needed to respond to a question about the mission of the church, or about God's plan for our lives? The chances are you'd return to the same short list. I certainly would. I know I've become comfortable and familiar with a handful of helpful proof texts which handily sum up my theology in nine or ten handy bites. If you read enough of my articles, you'll probably be able to quote the list back to me.
The thing is, God didn't give us ten verses. He gave us 31,173 of them (thanks Google). And they're all there for a reason; all designed to help us to process and understand the story of God and the meaning of our lives. When we reduce that to just 0.03% of the total (thanks calculator), we're missing a phenomenal amount of the bigger picture, even if we are cherry-picking some of the most profound brush-strokes.
This might not resonate with you at all; you may have devoted your life – and already a significant portion of today – to reading and studying Scripture. You may be the sort of person who knows the Bible inside out and mostly off by heart. If that's you, then fantastic, the church needs your wisdom, and it needs you to encourage the rest of us to fall as deeply in love with God's word as you have.
But if talk of a ten-verse Bible feels annoyingly close to home, then see that realisation not as a rebuke, but as a prompt to do better. If we seek to truly know God, then the surest route, tried and tested over the generations, is to truly know His word. The Bible is rich and complex enough to sustain a lifetime of daily study; by merely focussing on a few proof-texts which backup our worldview, we don't only do the book itself a disservice, but we miss out on a rich and unquenchable tool for encountering God.
So next time you find yourself quoting one of your old favourites on any given subject, see it as a reminder to find a fresh Biblical perspective on the matter. How are you supposed to spot poor theology, or truly know the heart of God, if you only really know ten verses? If we really want to understand 'what the Bible says', then we need to get a lot more familiar with a whole lot more of it. And as we do, it's a pretty safe bet that our lives will naturally look a lot more Christ-like as a result.
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.
