Posture and Character

I have been in rooms where the Bible was read like a shield, held tight against anything unfamiliar. I have also been in rooms where it was opened like a well, quietly, reverently, expectantly, by someone who had drawn water from it in the dry seasons. The difference was not in the reading plan. It was in the reader.

Some say, “I only read the Bible,” and mean it as a rejection of anything human. But it is often fear: fear of being misled, or changed, or exposed. They retreat into the text as a way of closing the door. And the irony is that they end up missing the text’s invitation: “Come, let us reason together,” says the Lord (Isaiah 1:18). Not retreat, but reason. Not silence, but conversation.

Others say the same thing, “I only read the Bible,” but something else is happening. You can tell by the way they listen. There is patience in their eyes. They are not looking to win a debate. They are trying to live a life. Their familiarity with the Word has not made them harsh—it has made them human. These are the ones who remind you that “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits…” (James 3:17). They have been shaped, not just informed.

Then there are those who read everything: Scripture, history, commentaries, arguments, poetry. I know them because I am one. The temptation is real: to start stacking up ideas like scaffolding and mistaking height for stability. To forget that knowledge can make us important, but love makes us useful. Paul warned us: “If I… understand all mysteries and all knowledge… but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).

However, there is another way to be a student, a better way to be a teacher. You can read deeply, and still be soft toward others. You can engage scholarship, and still tremble before the Word. You can teach with clarity and still speak from wonder. The goal is not to master the Bible. It is to be mastered by the God who speaks through it.

You can be a scholar. But you need to decide what kind of scholar you want to be.

I have come to believe that what qualifies someone to teach is not how much they have read. It is how much they have repented. It is not their command of the languages, but their submission to the voice that still speaks through them. It is not how confidently they present their findings, but how faithfully they carry their cross.

The question is not just “What do you know?”
It is “Who have you become?”

Because posture reveals trust.
And character reveals truth.

Not everyone who opens the Bible is teachable.
Not everyone who teaches it has been taught by it.

But when they have, when the text has cut, and healed, and shaped, and quieted.
you will know.

Because the voice you hear will not be aiming to impress.
It will be bearing witness.

~PW 🌮🛶