Instructions For Living The Word Of God

Most Christadelphians, when asked about any sort of daily Bible reading schedule, will cite what is known as the Bible Companion. Many know that it was originated by Robert Roberts, and quite a few will know he developed it as a teenager. Indeed, some will have read the passage in his autobiography, where he describes its development.

“I… finally came down to three at one sitting — which I have continued ever since. At the commencement of my Bible readings, I trusted to memory for the next chapters to be read. But after several years’ experience, I found it convenient to have a written guide. So I made a calendar of the entire readings for the year, in a penny pass book, which greatly facilitated the process. Friends got to know of this, and first one and then another asked me to provide them with a copy. I did this with much pleasure, until I had written 18 copies. Then I came across a printed little work of the same character, which suggested the idea of having my guide printed. This was done, under the name of The Bible Companion, which, with some modification, has continued in use ever since.”

The schedule takes one through the Old Testament once, and the New Testament twice in the course of a year. If you look at my Bible, it has 1298 pages, with the Old Testament taking up 1021, which is about 80% of the total. So simple logic would say if the two portions of the Old Testament each take up 40% of the whole, in the time it takes to read one Old Testament portion we can read two New Testament portions. Note the divisions in practice are not quite this simple: the first portion (Genesis-Job) has about 379,000 words, the second (Psalms-Malachi) has 230,000, and the New Testament has 179,000 words. Thus we read about the same number of words for the first and last portion, as we read the last portion twice in a year.

Of course, there are other Bible Reading planners, some of which quite simply take you through the whole Bible once per year. However, one of the advantages of the Bible Companion is that it often illuminates the resonances typical of the way the inspired authors dwell on similar themes, and stresses the inter-dependence of the whole word of God. In addition, the fact that most Christadelphians have and do use the Bible Companion gives it a special place among all of the available Bible reading guides.

The People of the Book revisited

As I have said, we often claim we are the “people of the Book”, and base this on our “diligent” readings as based upon the Bible Companion. This is most often seen in our Bibles in the form of a set of three inserts, one for each portion. The actual booklet is much rarer, but is of some interest for Bro. Roberts’ introduction. He says, in part:

“Salvation depends upon the assimilation of the mind to the divine ideas, principles, and affections, exhibited in the Scriptures. This process commences with a belief of the gospel, but is by no means completed thereby; it takes a lifetime for its scope and untiring diligence for its accomplishment. The mind is naturally alien from God and all His ideas (Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14), and cannot be brought at once to the Divine Likeness. This is a work of slow development, and can only be achieved by the industrious application of the individual to the means which God has given for the purpose, namely, the expression of His mind in the Scriptures of truth. Spiritual-mindedness, or a state of mind in accordance with the mind of the Spirit as displayed in these writings can grow within a man by daily intercourse with that mind, there unfolded. Away from this, the mind will revert to its original emptiness. The infallible advice then to every man and woman anxious about their salvation is — READ THE SCRIPTURES DAILY. It is only in proportion as this is done, that success may be looked for. The man, who sows sparingly in this respect, will only reap sparingly.”

These are valuable reminders of the necessity of frequent and deep familiarization with the Word of God, but perhaps some of the choice of words is a little unfortunate. We must remember

• Salvation is not by works: not all are capable of absorbing all the words, and indeed familiarity can lead to a skimming of the readings, not a contemplation as to how the words can act in our lives.
• Mere Bible knowledge is no pathway to the Kingdom. We remember that the Jews of Jesus’ day were famous for their knowledge of the Old Testament, and many could recite much if it, if not all, from memory. But they were condemned by Jesus for their lack of grasp of the message of hope, of forgiveness, of the grace of God.

So although the greater part of this special issue concerns the Word of God, how to study it and learn from it, we will also consider how it should act in our lives: “works”, the fruit of the Spirit, shows how this knowledge has resulted in actions. Not only that, but faith without acknowledging our need for repentance in baptism is also departing from the words of Christ. Faith without works is dead: but faith alone is also insufficient.

So in this Special Issue we will also include discussions on

• The way our “first principles”, as derived from the Word of God, should cause a moral reaction as well as an intellectual assent.
• How to use the Bible to live like a King.
• The way the Word, the logos, of God finds its true meaning and fulfillment in our savior, the Lord Jesus.

It is our hope and prayer that all will find help in this issue, whether it is to improve our Bible study habits, to strengthen our faith, or to ensure our faith has a deep hold on our beings through our actions.