Surveys taken over the past several years reveal that over two thirds of Christians/church goers never read their Bibles. [1] Now there are people who do not know how to read and throughout history many depended upon the clerics of their church to read and interpret the Bible for them. However, that is not the case today for the vast majority of people.
We do not seem to realize all the great benefits our technologically advanced society has given us and one of which is the ability to read. A T-shirt I have quotes Mark Twain as saying (and I paraphrase): A person who does not read good books has no advantage over a person who does not know how to read. And the Bible is a good book. So why do not we read it?
In Luke 12 Jesus gives his disciples a parable in which a servant is instructed to be ready for his master’s return and part of being ready is to fully utilize the talents and abilities he has been given. The point of the parable is that: “. . .Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48). We have been given so much materially and spiritually. Are we using these gifts rightly?
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[1] Ken Staley. “Illiteracy in the Church”, Tulsa Beacon, October 20, 2022, p. 3B.
