Reading Your Bible Is Not Enough

Hello there, this is AD Robles, and you're listening to AD on the Fight Laugh Feast Network.

Alright, let's do this. It has been a slow week. In fact, I have not done a single video or podcast this week at all.

And the reason is because I have the CoV. That's right, I've got the CoV. My symptoms started on Saturday, like in the afternoon, or maybe

Saturday night, and it was pretty rough for a few days. I started feeling better really yesterday for the most part.

I'm still sick, I still feel tired, and I'm coughing a little bit, and my throat hurts a little bit.

Most of the severe symptoms are gone, and I'm okay now, but it's been a wild ride.

My whole family had it, my son, my 3 -year -old had it first, then he healed, and then everybody else got it, which was crazy because everyone else is feeling like death, and my 3 -year -old is bouncing off the walls.

Anyway, it's been quite a challenge. I would say that on the scale of diseases that I've had, it's not as bad as the swine flu that I had when

I lived in New York City. That was way worse. But it's worse than a regular cold, that's what

I'll say. Luckily, the symptoms went away very quickly. Thank you for the prayers if you're praying for me to recover.

I have for the most part, and hopefully by the next few days I'll be totally better. In any case,

I did want to do a follow -up to last week's video. I'm not talking about the fishing video, although somebody got real aggressive in the comments of the fishing video.

It was trying to get me to disavow Right Response Ministries and Joel Webben and come out against post -millennialism.

Dude, this is a fishing video, what are you even doing? In any case, the video before that one, the one about Christianity for ordinary people, that got a lot of pushback.

I'll be totally transparent with you, I expected that to get a lot of pushback, I really did. I was not expecting a lot of the visceral, emotional responses.

I did get quite a few of those. In fact, a lot of people were throwing accusations my way that it was very out of place.

It was a very emotional reaction. I don't really want to focus on those, but I was a little confused about that.

I was not confused about the pushback at all. Most people were quoting verses to me that I've considered, and of course

I know them very much. I did want to clarify a few things.

I'm definitely doubling down on that video. I believe what I said in that video, I still do. I do want to explain myself a little bit, because there were some misunderstandings, and I'm going to take ownership of that.

I probably wasn't explaining it as well as I could have. I do want to clear some of that stuff up right now.

Here's the thing about that video. Basically, the premise of that video is that the normal Christian, the everyday

Christian, goes to church faithfully, who's raising his children in the fear and admonition of the

Lord. But, you know, they're not pastors, right? They're not vocational ministers. They're not the workmen that's working for the

Lord in ministry in that capacity, right? And vocationally. They have a different life.

They have a different expectation of their engagement with the Word of God than a pastor would, because they're a workman in another area.

Maybe they're a plumber. Maybe they're something else. And so your Bible reading or your Bible study is really what that was all about.

It's going to be very different than a pastor. It's not going to be super in -depth all the time. I mean, it can be, and this is one of the misconceptions that I think

I want to clear up right now. I'm not against daily Bible reading, right? I'm not against studying the

Bible. And I thought that was clear in the video, because in the video itself, I talked about a time when I studied the

Bible very in -depth, when I didn't have something that I was doing. Like, I wasn't preparing for a sermon or I wasn't preparing for teaching

Sunday school or writing a book or something. Like, I just had a personal project about prayer that I was interested in, and so I came up with my own project.

I don't do that all the time. So I'm not against Bible reading and Bible study. A lot of people responded and said,

Bible reading is precious, A .D. Why don't you understand that? And it's like, I absolutely do understand that.

In fact, in the video itself, I said, I recommend that you read the Bible. So I'm not against these things.

But what I wanted to do is just make sure that the expectation is properly set, because I do believe that people think, and actually some of the comments show this, that no, the standard life for a

Christian is basically the life of a pastor. If you're going to mature in your Christianity, your life should look like a pastor's life in the sense of you're constantly studying, you're in -depth reading every day, and that's what you spend your time doing.

It's like, well, that's actually not the expectation that the Bible puts forward. That's not. You know, people quoted to me a lot from 1

Timothy, and a lot of these verses come from Timothy. And it's like, you know, study to show yourself approved, a workman that does not need to be ashamed.

That's not a direct quotation, but these are the verses people were quoting to me, and I know those verses, but that's my whole point.

That verse is for Timothy. What is Timothy? He's a minister. He's in vocational ministry.

That's what his life is looking like as a minister. And so it would be a very—listen,

I'm not saying that a plumber shouldn't read the Bible, but their study and reading, it doesn't need to look like a pastor's looks.

I think a lot of people put this unrealistic expectation on their quiet times and their study and all this kind of stuff, and it basically makes it seem like maturity,

Christian maturity is how faithful you are with your devotions and your quiet times and things like that, and that's just not what the

Bible presents. I even had a commenter that says that every Christian needs to study Greek, at least at some level.

That's not true. If you want to study—I'm not against studying Greek. I've studied Greek, so this is my point.

People hear me saying that I'm against these things. I want to clear that up. If you are not a pastor, but you decide you want to study

Greek, that's something that you want to do, I'm not against it. I think it could be very beneficial to some people, but it's not for everybody.

And so nobody should be made to feel like a lesser Christian because they're not studying a certain amount of time or learning

Greek or referencing a certain amount of systematics when they're reading through their Bibles.

I just don't see that as the standard in Scripture. What I do see—and this is kind of where this is coming from, right?

I think that if you take it out of the context of this conversation, and you just go to a random

Christian, a good, faithful Christian, and you say, what does Christian maturity look like?

What are you aiming for as far as Christian maturity? What do you see as a man or a woman who's mature as a

Christian? I honestly do believe a lot of people would be focusing on time spent in devotions, time spent in quiet time, and stuff like that.

And to be honest, again, that's not what the Bible presents. The Bible talks about things like the fruit of the

Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. These are all character traits, things that you are, that you do.

And this is the other thing, too. I made this point in the video before. I'm not against Bible reading.

In fact, in the video, I said, you need to know enough about God to teach your kids and to do the things that God requires, to do what

God commands of His people. But you see, that's the primary focus, the actions, right?

Almost every passage about the Word of God and how important it is in the life of a believer, almost every passage connects it to works.

It's like the Word of God, but not just for the sake of it, not just for, you know, you think that something magically is going to happen if you're reading the

Bible. No, it's to prepare you for good works. It's to drive you to good works.

It's the works that are at focus there. And it's like, so this is the thing.

I think that we've got it all twisted, that actually the mature Christian life is someone whose life is filled with good works unto the

Lord. They've got faith in Christ, and they love Christ. And the reason you know they love

Christ, what does Jesus say? You should go to Christ Himself if you want to know.

How do you abide in the love of Christ? Is it spending time in devotions? Is it quiet time?

Is it writing a poem to Jesus? Is that how you abide in the love of Christ? Again, I think that if you take it out of the context of this conversation, you just ask a random

Christian, a faithful, God -fearing Christian, how do you abide in the love of Christ?

Many of them will be like, quiet times, spending time in prayer. These are all good things.

I'm not against them. I need to emphasize that. That's not what Christ says, though.

Christ says you abide in the love of Christ by doing what He commands. That's what the life of a mature

Christian is. It's doing what Christ commands. And yes, Christ does command that you spend time in prayer.

This is definitely true. Christ does command that you do not neglect the assembly, that you do corporate worship, that you sing songs unto the

Lord, that you meditate on the Word of God. But you see, what it doesn't say, though, is, and the way to do that is to make sure you get your daily

Bible reading in. That's the only way to truly study it. That's the only way to meditate on the

Word of God. That's not what the Bible teaches. Is it a bad way? No, I'm not against it.

I need to keep emphasizing this, because everyone's going to hear what

I'm saying here and still think that I'm somehow against it. These are not bad ways to meditate on the

Word of God, but they're not the only way. This is my point. And when you read the

Scripture, again, I think that the primary mode that it teaches you engaging with the

Word of God is through the person sent to preach it. That's scriptural, right?

You'd be very hard -pressed to find verses that say that you're required to read it devotionally every single day.

Is this a bad idea? No, it is not a bad idea. In fact, it's a blessing to have the opportunity to read the

Bible every day. It's a blessing that most people haven't known. And that's my whole point.

Most people haven't known this blessing. Therefore, it can't possibly be a requirement. You see what

I'm saying? It can't possibly. So that's my whole point here. And so I'm not against Bible reading.

I'm not against devotions. I'm not against quiet time. I'm not even against taking a picture if that's what you want to do.

If you are the kind of person that takes a picture of your little coffee in your Bible and you want to write a poem to Jesus and you put it on Instagram, I'm not against all that kind of stuff.

But let's not mistake that kind of stuff for the life of a mature Christian and life of a mature believer, because there could be an extremely mature believer who's a construction worker and really doesn't have the time that a lot of people dedicate to studying the

Scripture for himself because he's running a business, right? In any case, so I do want to make sure to emphasize that.

And I also kind of want to address something else as well. This is one that came up a lot also, where people were saying that our current doctrinal knowledge as a body of believers in the

United States is abysmal. You know, you see those surveys that people do, you know, where people don't even know about the

Trinity and things like that. And people are citing that stuff and they're saying, and here you are encouraging people to read the

Bible less. Again, I did no such thing in that video. So again, if you hear me challenging the presupposition that every

Christian is required to study the Bible every day, just because I'm challenging that doesn't mean

I'm against studying the Bible. These are two completely different things. So please hear me not saying that because I'm not saying that.

But anyway, so they're saying, you know, you're encouraging people to read the Bible less in a time when we have horrible doctrinal understanding and things like that.

And here's the thing, guys, like, I don't think that your prescription of just reading the

Bible is really actually going to solve anything. Because if you think about it, like, statistically speaking, we have more access to the scriptures.

People are reading the scriptures more than they ever have before in history.

And I'm not saying like literally every day is like more than the day before, but just with the amount of access we have and the amount of,

I mean, every store sells Bibles. I mean, you can get a Bible at a gas station in a truck stop these days, and they have them there because people purchase them, right?

So you have a lot of access to the Bible. People are reading it. That's not the issue. So I don't think just reading the Bible has much to do with biblical literacy.

In fact, here's the thing. A lot of people who reached out to me, and some of these are public, some of these are private, they would reach out and they'd push back and say, how dare you say this?

And by the way, when you emphasize the Lord's Day worship, church is not a building.

And so a lot of these people that are focused on their daily devotions and emphasizing everyday in -depth study of the

Bible, they don't go to church. And I have to say, like the people that read the

Bible a ton but don't go to church are probably the most biblically illiterate people around.

So just reading it is really not enough. And I think a lot of the responses that I got, again, there was a lot of responses that went along these lines that said, if you don't read the

Bible every day, A .D., how are you going to correct your pastor when he's wrong? As if the primary reason to read the

Bible is to correct your pastor. It's like, guys, I think a lot of people have a low opinion on what happens on the

Lord's Day on Sunday. Like the word of God that is preached on Sunday is very powerful, and that is such a primary thing for the people of God that we should not be de -emphasizing the importance of that.

Like if you work three jobs and you're trying to feed your family and stuff like that, you don't have a whole lot of time for Bible study, and really the primary way you're getting the word is through your faithful pastor on Sunday.

People in the comments were saying, if that's you, then you're going to be spiritually anemic. How are you meditating on the word of God?

And I'm thinking like, you know, for a lot of history, this is almost everybody that this is how they got their word.

Was everybody before the 20th century an anemic Christian? I don't think so.

I don't think so. Like if you have a faithful pastor and you're hearing the word of God, and you're thinking and meditating on that word that you heard on Sunday, that precious word...

By the way, I think the word is precious too, right? So people that are trying to say, how could you say that?

It's precious, A .D. Yeah, I agree. But if that's you, and that's how you get it, and you think about it, and you're thinking through...

Like I was thinking the other day about what my pastor preached the last time I was at church. Unfortunately, I couldn't go last

Sunday because I had the Covid. But he was preaching on Melchizedek, and man, I love

Melchizedek, that whole thing in Hebrews with Melchizedek. I thought about it a lot.

And my pastor gave me some extra insight on Sunday about Melchizedek and the connection to Christ and things like that.

And I was just thinking about it, just in awe of this story that God has woven over millennia.

And I'm just thinking through that and what that means. If he can weave the story together over millennia, what is he weaving in my own...

There's just so much to meditate on and think about. And that counts, guys.

That is how you meditate on the Word of God. It's not like... If that's all I do throughout the week is just think about the passage that my pastor preached on and the different insights that he had and things like that, that's okay.

I don't have to get my study Bible out and my inner linears and things like that to really just dig in and study the

Word. Again, I'm not against those things, but that is enough. You're not going to have an automatically anemic life if you just do that.

But you will have an anemic life if you don't go to church. And so my mind was boggled by all the feedback that I got from Christians who don't go to church, but they're like, but you have to study.

Every Christian has to study the Bible in depth every single day. And I'm like, give me the verse for that.

Give me the verse for that. Again, the whole point, though, is that as a

Christian, your engagement with the Scripture, it's going to look different depending on your season of life, depending on who you are and what kind of life you have.

There's so many different things that would change how this would look. And that was basically the point of that video.

I got a lot of comments that said, A .D., everyone needs to study the Bible. It might look differently for different people. And it's like, that's kind of what

I said in the video. I don't know why you would think I'd disagree with that. But that's my whole point, right? Getting your quiet time and your devotions in every day might be a challenge for some people.

That's just reality. That's just reality. And it's not being flippant and saying, oh, I just don't have time for it. No, I'm just being realistic, right?

Being realistic with this. And so let's not make things commands that aren't commands. If you're going to church on Sunday, hearing the preach word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and throughout the week you're focused and you're meditating on what you heard from God's mouth on Sunday.

And you're singing songs to yourself and you're praying to the Lord. I give you insight into that and things like that.

Guys, you're doing well. You're doing well. It's not even about the reading is not the fruit,

I guess is what I'm trying to say. So I feel like a lot of people, and I'm not saying every commenter that pushed back on me was like this, but I feel like a lot of people think that the reading of the scripture daily and the devotions time is the fruit that you're looking for in the life of a true believer.

I just don't think that's the case at all. I think that the fruit is good works.

The fruit is the fruit of the spirit. And you read the Bible so that you do these good works.

In fact, a lot of people quoted Psalm 119 to me. And it's one of my favorite psalms.

And even how Psalm 119 opens, it's the word of God so that you do these good works and you can live righteously and you know how to walk and things like that.

In any case, I just wanted to push back on some of this stuff and double down on this because a lot of people get it too.

A lot of people reached out to me and said, hey, I really needed to hear this, that kind of thing. And I don't think any of those people were like, oh good, phew,

I don't have to do anything. I just want to be lazy. I get to be lazy now. AD says I can be lazy.

I don't think any of the people that were happy about the video were saying that.

I don't think any of those people are against reading the Bible and all of that kind of thing. But I think that one of my pastor friends actually said it really well.

I couldn't find it. But basically he was saying when you're doing your own Bible reading or you're reading to your kids or whatever, that's private, kind of family worship stuff, and that's all good stuff.

Nobody's against it. But if you do that and then you neglect or downplay or downgrade the corporate worship, which is actually the required, that's what

God commands us to do, that doesn't make any sense at all. That's like practicing six days in the week and then skipping the game on Sunday.

It doesn't make any sense to do that at all. And really that was such a good insight because I didn't think this through at the time.

But, yeah, I think a lot of people overemphasize private worship and they put it over corporate worship.

And that's why I think a lot of people were kind of saying, you know, you've got to correct your pastor. You've got to know. And, sure, you do have to know if the pastor is telling you lies or not.

But that's not why you read the Bible. You read the Bible so that you're prepared for good works.

I feel like what happens on Sunday, in many subtle ways, has been de -emphasized.

And I think that, honestly, has more to do with our biblical illiteracy than anything.

Because we really don't—I don't want to say this carefully.

A lot of people don't actually think what they're hearing on Sunday is authoritative. They know better.

They've studied the Bible. And they know more than their pastor in many ways.

And it's like, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but I don't know. I think that there's a degraded view of what happens at church and with your church family than there needs to be.

To be honest, like—I don't even know if I should mention this. I will.

So it came to my attention, somebody brought it to my attention, that I guess J .D. Hall has decided to not submit to church discipline anymore.

And I guess that there's some disagreements on what the church discipline should look like. And as much as it pains me to say this,

I cannot support that. Because God provided J .D. with those elders for this exact time, for this exact moment.

And quite frankly, when you're the one that's being disciplined, you're in no position to decide what's appropriate.

Like, this is the thing. We need to trust our pastors more.

And if you have a pastor that you can't trust, then you need to find one that you can. And I really think that a lot of the pushback that I got was good and healthy, but some of it really wasn't.

And there's definitely a—I don't know. I think I've made my point.

But guys, the point here is reading the Bible is not enough. Reading the

Bible is good. I read the Bible. I know a lot of people are saying I don't, and that's why

I made the video. I read the Bible. Reading the Bible is good. But it's not enough.

Reading the Bible is not the fruit that we're looking for in the life of a true believer. A true believer will read the

Bible, most likely. But it's the fruit of the

Spirit. It's the good works. That's what the Bible itself teaches. And so we dare not be like those that search the

Scriptures because they think that that's where they'll find eternal life. But it's the

Scriptures that actually point to Jesus. The Scriptures that actually teach about Jesus.

Jesus is where eternal life is found. That's the point. In any case,

I know that this is not going to satisfy everybody because that's fine. But I definitely want to double down.

But I also wanted to clarify just a little bit more of where I was coming from. I hope you found this podcast and video helpful.