Public Bible Reading
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Why do we take time to read scripture during our Sunday Worship Service? This is an important question because we don't want to do anything by accident in our worship. And at Free Grace we have attempted to root the things we do in scripture. Also, we want all of you to know why this is a biblical practice and not a quirk of our little congregation.
If we are honest, taking time to read longer passages of scripture stretches us. Many of us have a pretty short attention span due to our television and social media habits. We are far more used to sound bites than sustained concentration. For what it is worth, at this point in our services we don't actually read longer passages, but more medium and short-sized ones. For instance, our reading of 3 passages this last Sunday (10/31) was a little less than 6 minutes in length. So if you find yourself struggling to follow along, that is OK. Our attention span for scripture reading is similar to endurance when a person starts a program of exercise. When we first start doing it, we may feel out of shape, but over time we will grow.
Our practice of reading scripture may seem a little odd compared to what is done in many American churches. In the early years of planting the church we had numerous visitors that were "church shopping" explain that they had been visiting various churches for months and that we were the only church that opened the Bible and read from it more than a verse or two. That is not a flattering observation for us as Americans. Of course this is not enough to justify scripture reading. We don't do it just to be different. but we do it to be faithful to the teaching of God's word. We do it as an act of obedience.
Colossians 4:16 "And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea." (All scriptures from the ESV translation)
I Thess. 5:27 "I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers."
I Tim 4:13 "...devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching."
Revelation 1:3 "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it."
The New Testament Churches, like the Old Testament believers in the synagogue, read the scriptures together out loud. They would often read entire letters in one sitting. This was all the more important because the average person did not have their own copy of the scriptures. This has been the pattern throughout church history. Most traditions (including the more liturgical traditions today) read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and one of the gospels every Sunday.
The reading of scripture was one of the ways that the church was "devoted to the teaching of the apostles" (Acts 2:42ff). It was serious business, note that Paul puts the Thessalonians under oath!
In I Tim 4:13 Paul instructs Timothy in his pastoral duties not just to read the scriptures, or encourage others to read them but to read them PUBLICLY.
We see that the reading of scripture is connected to the teaching and exhortation (preaching) of the scriptures.
God pronounces a particular blessing on the reading of scripture. This is because, "when we open scripture we are opening the mouth of God." When scripture speaks, God speaks.
Our pattern in the New Testament continues the pattern of reading that was commanded in the Old Testament and continued into the early church. This was even Jesus' pattern during his life. It was also a common practice in Paul's missionary work to go to the Synagogues and preach that Jesus was the Christ after the reading of the scriptures (Acts 13:15, Acts 15:21)
"This was the practice of the early church, as Justin Martyr notes in his famous description of worship in the second century. “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray” (1 Apology 1.67; ANF 1:186)." Quoted by Justin Borger
Luke 4:16-17 "16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him."
Throughout the Old Testament the public reading of the law (aka the scriptures) was associated with times of revival and reformation, while the neglect of the reading of scripture was a portent for wandering and idolatry.
Consider Joshua 8:34-35 "34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them." (See also Deut. 31:11, Nehemiah 8:2-3, and 13:1)
So, we urge you to see the public reading as an act of worship! to be done with attention, heart, and joyful faith!
