Prescription for Reading: Read. Extract. Apply. Do.

The ability to read is greatly underrated. It’s like receiving a gift that continues to keep giving. It’s like being entrusted with a key that opens an infinite number of treasures. As a boy I became an avid reader, taking me on adventures with teen inventor Tom Swift, solving mysteries with the Hardy Boys, traveling to distant lands through books like Treasure Island, Hans Brinker and Ivanhoe, and enjoying sports exploits with the likes of Chip Hilton and Mel Martin. 

I also devoured books about American history, nature, science fiction, mystery, and a host of other topics. My younger days would have been impoverished without being able to read and learn about so many intriguing topics. For this reason, I believe literacy should receive paramount attention in our society. Gaining the capacity to read can provide a pathway out of poverty and into prosperity.

However, the power of reading involves more than being able to recognize letters, words and even comprehend sentences. Because we can read many things but if we don’t put into use the information we acquire, we’ve gained little. 

 

Recently during a discussion a friend suggested an acronym that illustrates this point. It’s READ: Read. Extract. Apply. Do. He explained that when we read something, we should seek not only to recognize words and meanings, or even for intellectual understanding, but also for application – striving to put what we have read into action.

 

For instance, when we buy a new kitchen appliance it comes with directions for use. We might read them, but if we don’t follow what they say we should do, we could damage the product – or worse. When we rented a cabin to attend a family function, the owners had left a list of instructions we needed to take care of before we left. Reading the list would have been of no use if we hadn’t followed up on what it said.

 

We could cite many other examples, but the wisdom of ‘Read – Extract – Apply – Do’ is particularly vital as we read the Scriptures. In fact, the apostle James gave this admonition to followers of Jesus as he taught how they should conduct their everyday lives: 

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

 

While He never used the READ acronym, Jesus Christ was clearly a strong advocate of it in principle. He found it particularly applicable for responding to accusations leveled at him by the Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious leaders who opposed His ministry. On numerous occasions He would chide His hearers, “Have you not read…?” 

 

For instance, in rebuking the Pharisees for complaining when they saw His hungry disciples picking heads of grain on the Sabbath day, He said, “‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.’ Then He said, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’” (Luke 6:3-5). 

 

Another time the Pharisees were challenging Jesus on His views about divorce. He responded, “Haven’t you read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:4).

 

One day the Sadducees, another group of religious leaders, were attempting to trick Jesus with a question about people being resurrected of the dead. Jesus replied, “…have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26).

 

And speaking to the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders who confronted him about His teachings, Jesus gave a parable about a vineyard owner and then concluded, “Haven’t you read this scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mark 12:10).

 

In each instance, Jesus knew the religious had literally read the words from the scrolls that were so fastidiously stored in the synagogues and temples. They had read what the Scriptures said, and perhaps even worked to extract their meaning. Their fault came in failure to properly apply and put into action what they were saying.

 

The same can be said for us today. It’s said that while many homes across the United States have at least one copy of the Bible, only about nine percent of professing Christians actually read the Bible on a regular basis. As for how many of those are diligent to apply and do what they read, we can only assume it’s less than nine percent.

 

The Scriptures assure us that salvation – receiving God’s forgiveness for our sins and being assured of eternal life – is solely a gift of His grace and mercy. At the same time, we’re instructed to live out what we read in God’s Word. As the apostle Paul urged believers in ancient Philippi, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). In other words, as James the apostle said, don’t just read and listen to the Word of God. Do what it says to do!

When God Instructs Us to ‘Do Nothing’

Many of us are products of the so-called Protestant work ethic which puts a high premium on productivity and personal initiative. It’s an oversimplification, I know, but we learned that if you need or want something, the best method for getting it is to work for it. 

 

This overall philosophy of work and its rewards still holds true today, although it’s not as widely embraced as it once was. This “work ethic” long ago filtered its way into the spiritual realm, prompting many seekers to wonder if they’ve done enough, if they’re good enough, to earn God’s favor. 

 

However, working, we might even call it performing, to gain God’s approval runs counter to New Testament teachings. Many passages affirm the concept of grace – the Lord’s undeserved, unmerited favor – but the first one I always think off is Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

 

By God’s grace, we respond to Him in faith and receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. But what about our works? Are they unimportant? The next verse, Ephesians 2:10 elaborates, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Yes, the Lord wants and expects us to do good works, but not to receive salvation. Our works should be motivated by the reality and recognition that we have received salvation – we respond out of love and gratitude for what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. As Titus 3:5 asserts, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

 

When we read in Philippians 2:12, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” it’s not a command to work for God’s acceptance but an admonition to work out what God has already put into us. The next verse clarifies, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” What a blessing and a privilege it is to be used by the Lord to accomplish His perfect plan.

 

So, we can rest in the knowledge that if we’re His children, there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more – and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We can point to one passage that actually seems to instruct followers of Christ to do nothing.

 

Those verses are Philippians 2:3-4, in which we’re told, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

 

Okay, this passage isn’t directing us to literally do nothing, to sit idly on a stump. It’s more about the motivation behind whatever we’re doing and the spirit in which we’re doing it. In our actions, words and thoughts, God desires for us to put Him and others first. 

 

This can be challenging in our contemporary society that often promotes self above all things. Even some of the popular Christian praise songs these days seem more about “me” and “I” than they are about the God of all creation and Jesus Christ, His Son. We could say they’re more about “me-ology” than theology.

 

What if we started each day and reminded ourselves repeatedly during the course of each day to “do nothing” – to check ourselves by evaluating whether we’re acting out of “selfishness or empty conceit,” or “in humility regarding others as more important that ourselves,” as another translation expresses Philippians 2:3?

 

Humility might seem like a vanishing virtue in today’s world when pride is placed on a pedestal. But imagine the difference we could make by consciously seeking to “look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others,” as the following verse admonishes.

Such a radical approach to life and the personal encounters we have each day, even more than the best conceived evangelistic strategies, could enable us to fit the description of being “blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15). Wouldn’t that be worth a try? 

Biblical Mathematics: Is It ‘Jesus-Plus’?

Some of us are better at math than others. For some reason I’ve always been good at number games, like what is 27 times 27 (729) or 32 times 32 (1,024)? But I’ve always been highly challenged by columns of numbers on a ledger sheet or in a checkbook. Some people seem to have problems, too, with what I call “biblical math.”

It concerns what is required to go to heaven and enjoy eternal life. There’s one side that says all you need to do is add up good deeds and compare them with bad deeds. If the good adds up to more than the bad, you’re good to go.

When asked if they expect to go to heaven when they die, the vast majority of people will respond, “I hope so.” Then they might enumerate reasons why: “I’m basically a good person.” “I support charitable causes.” “I’m nice to puppies.” “I think I’m better than the next guy.” “I try to practice acts of random kindness.” Stuff like that.

Those are all laudable things, without question. We’d certainly like to see everyone behaving well rather than behaving poorly. But if we believe the Scriptures, they categorically affirm that none of us is going to earn our way into heaven. It’s not going to happen. It’s not an issue of which total is greater.

Consider the following: Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Lest we be accused of biblical “cherry picking,” we also have Titus 3:5 which declares, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” 

These are just two of many passages we could consider, but they clearly teach that not only can we not earn our way to eternal life through our works and good behavior, but even the faith to believe in what Jesus has done for us is a gift from God.

But there’s another side to this coin. It’s one that essentially contends that while Jesus has paid the full price for our sins – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) – we still need to add to what He has done to stay in God’s good graces.

We might term this “Jesus-plus” thinking. It goes something like this: “Yes, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and we receive forgiveness through His mercy and grace. But there are still things we must do to ensure that we’re Christians.” Biblical mathematics, don’t you know?

These might include things like being baptized in a prescribed manner (usually by immersion); showing up faithfully whenever the church doors are opened; wearing the right clothes and/or having one’s hair trimmed and styled in specific ways; listening only to certain kinds of music; giving or tithing a minimum amount. The list could go on. You probably can think of additions you’ve heard.

The bottom line is that this kind of teaching essentially contends that Jesus isn’t enough. We must add something (or some things) to what He’s already accomplished on our behalf. Some might even point to verses like “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), or “…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17).

These are important declarations, indeed, and we dare not cast them aside. But neither they nor other similar verses justify “Jesus-plus” teaching. As Oswald Chambers wisely observed more than a century ago, working out our salvation with fear and trembling amounts to working out what the Lord has already worked in. Kind of like squeezing out a saturated sponge.

When you plant an apple tree, you presume that eventually it will produce apples. And we don’t try to get oranges off of oak trees. Similarly, if we are genuinely new creations in Jesus Christ, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 describes, then there should be evidence of that spiritual transformation in our lives. Our actions, as well as changes in our thoughts and even things we say, serve as manifestations of that.

We’re not saved by our works – but our works demonstrate that we’re saved. As Jesus said, for instance, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Or as John the Baptist admonished, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” (Matthew 3:8, New Living Translation).

To put it another way, there’s nothing we can contribute to enhance what Christ has already done for us. As He said on the cross before taking His last breath, “It is finished” (John 19:30). At the same time, there should be evidence of His work in our lives – proof that we have indeed repented and turned to God. Otherwise, it just doesn’t add up.