I mentioned last week that reading good Christian books was one of the very enjoyable experiences of last year’s discipleship program. I wanted this week to comment a bit on the trend we discovered.
Last year the students filled out evaluations. While reading them over we perceived that one of the two areas our students professed the most improvement was an increased desire to read Christian books. This change was across the board. However, the increase in interest was not from neutral to high. Rather interest generally went from absolutely nothing to recognizing the worth of reading good books.
I feel it is a particular weakness of modern Christianity to ignore books. I remember looking down on books myself when I was young, and have heard many believers express no need for them since.
Should we read books on theology and the Christian life? And if so, why?
Let’s look at one of the chief arguments against reading such books: the notion that all a person needs is the Bible and the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life. Let’s look at this really quickly.
1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about the church as the body of Christ. In verses 1-11 that God has built a diversity into the church, with different people having different gifts. We see that he did this because he wanted it that way. In the rest of the chapter we see that these gifts were given so that the individuals composing the body could be a blessing to the others and to the body as a whole. We also see that the notion that a member does not need the others is against God’s plan. If one member cannot say that he doesn’t need another member, can we safely say that a single member should not stand apart and claim to not need any of them?
Ephesians chapter 4 talks about some who have been gifted with leadership and teaching. They are being used, just like all of us in the church are being used, to build up the whole. They also assist in equipping disciples of Jesus for life and ministry. This is part of the whole picture of believers edifying one another with their gifts. It is a give and take. We bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6) and drive each other on to love and good works (Hebrews 10).
My view of good Christian books is simply a medium through which some of church history’s great teachers can bless us with their gifts though we might never meet them. This has been real in my life. Calvin, Lewis, Sproul, Tozer, MacArthur, Keller, and many others have helped me greatly without ever having met me.
Be Discerning
Let us be clear, while it is wise to reap the knowledge and experience of men and women God has gifted and enabled to write; they are still just people. The most brilliant commentary on the Bible is still not Scripture. We must run these books through the filter of God’s Word, like the noble Bereans. We must do this with every sermon, every talk, and every book.
Consider also who wrote it. While we never want to put people on pedestals, we should recognize and honor good and faithful men and women of God, emulating them just as Paul instructs us in Philippians 2-3. We must also recognize and avoid swindlers and false teachers and avoid them and their messages.
Under Grace,
John Fritz
John Fritz is the Volunteer Coordinator for Thoughtful Life Ministries and the primary author of the Thoughtful Life Journal, which is published weekly from March through September. The purpose of this blog is to challenge and encourage those who have a desire to cultivate a more meaningful walk with Christ. Visit our Homepage to learn more about the ministry and our annual two-week summer Discipleship Program for teens and young adults.