Memory verses

I love memes. Like the best comedy, they can point out our worst fears in a safe place, allowing us to explore the worst bits of our inner being.

I follow Episcopol Church Memes on Facebook. The light-hearted, self-depreciating memes are generally amazing. Like this one:

But they recently posted one which really bugged me. It had the tagline “what it means to be a Christian…”

It bugged me on two grounds.

Firstly, how we treat others isn’t the basic meaning of Christianity. What it means to be a Christian is to recognise how far we have fallen from His purposes, repenting by turning back from our evil schemes and ways, trusting in His forgiveness through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven; and therefore out of love, doing His will. In other words, how we treat people is a fruit or result of our faith, not the basis or basic meaning of it.

Secondly, it sets up a false dichotomy. Proverbs 19:2 tells us that zeal without knowledge is dangerous. At the same time, James 2 is clear that faith without action is no faith at all.

Clearly we need to both know the scripture and to do scripture.

We get to know scripture in multiple ways: sermons, discussions, books and of course reading it for ourselves.

But my contention here, and the third reason for the meme bugging me, is that Jesus is very concerned with how much scripture we know.

I agree that there can be a pride from learning memory verses. Children are sometimes encouraged to compete at Sunday School and recite verses in front of church (not in mine, thankfully), to rapturous applause for particularly difficult ones. The focus becomes not on what the verse means, but the fact that it is learnt. And there’s a line between encouraging others and being boastful about our own success; or between spurring another on and competing with them.

We can also become focused on that particular verse, and it becomes our ‘life verse’ at the expense of not reading other verses. As RC Sproul said, I want the whole of Scripture to be my guide, not just one verse.

And focusing on those verses can mean we forget the context of them; that they are one in a passage that explores this or that.

But I think these dangers can be conquered (through, yes, scripture), and shouldn’t stop us from learning it.

I’ve never had a system for learning that I’ve kept for any length of time. I am learning what works for me. I am not doing my best work when it comes to scripture memorisation. I’ll post more on that another time.

But before we think systems, let’s think about why. Here are some I’ve discovered.

Learning scripture helps us to pray.

When we know scripture, we have a solid basis on which to pray. We can praise God for who he is, not just who we think He is. This means we’ll come to Him with the right attitude; a combination of humility knowing he is the Lord of all, and of boldness, knowing he is compassionate.

Learning scripture helps others to pray.

We pray to God, not to other people. But there have been times in my own journey where I have not known what to pray, and I’ve heard someone else quoting scripture in their prayer. It breaks the deadlock and enables prayer.

Learning scripture helps us to do his will through the day.

I am very guilty of reading scripture in the morning and forgetting what I read.
In the evening, I’ll then re-read the same scripture (because I know I didn’t take it in) and realise that I did the very thing that God warned me about in the morning. D’oh!

How might it be different if I had remembered? Very. It is by the Spirit’s help that I do His will, but here’s an example.

Many times during playground duty, there is a lot of ‘he said/she said’ situations. It can be tiring to determine who actually did or said what, and why. It is often tempting to not deal with it properly. But I’ve been reflecting on a few verses which give a great deal of motivation to get it right:
Proverbs 20:10 – “Differing weights and measures – the Lord detests them both”
Proverbs 21:3 – “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice”
Proverbs 17:15 – “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent – the Lord detests both.”

This gives me a clear path ahead.

I could just do right without thinking of God.
But the danger there is that I do so out of selfish motives, rather than because I love Christ and want to do His will.

Memorising Scripture helps decision making.

Would it be appropriate to open a bible at a board meeting? Unless it’s a Christian company, probably not. Yet God is to be our guide. And he guides us through the bible.

So in order to be guided in those situations where we don’t gave ready access to the words, we must have it in our minds and hearts.

In the above example, I can use those verses to assess how fairly I am treating the children. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I didn’t know the verses existed.

Memorising Scripture helps us to speak with others.

If the Bible is to be our guide, if we know Scripture by heart it is much easier to say what it says than, “erm, er, I think there’s a bible verse that says something about it.”

Instead of ‘pooling our collective ignorances’, we can begin to see what the bible says on an issue that someone is struggling with.

Memorising scripture helps us when we’re struggling.

I’ve written elsewhere on the web about one of the most majestic verse in the bible.

Instead of flicking randomly to “a verse about anger” we can really pray that scripture into that situation.

Memorising scripture helps us to read scripture.

Scripture is interpreted by scripture. So when we’re reading one passage, we may come to understand another. We won’t be able to do that if we don’t know it.

Meditating on his word in quiet moments really helps transform our minds. And we are to be “transformed by the renewing of [our] minds.” (Romans 12:2)

Memorising scripture helps us love God.

I’m a few days behind schedule on my bible reading plan. Hey, it’s Leviticus at the moment. But when I read through Genesis and Exodus, I was able to reflect on how faithful God is to his faithless deeds.

Knowing the great story-arc of creation, fall, redemption and glory – and knowing the details within – helps us realise how truly great God is, and how loving he is – and how we really don’t deserve it.

To sum, compared with the richness of Scripture, the weightiness of it, the encouragement, the blessings and the chastisement, I think the dangers of pride and decontextualisation are, although not insignificant, shouldn’t be given their due.

It’s hard work, but learning scripture is a great thing to do, so long as we use it to then treat others accordingly.

I admit, I don’t always put it into action. I need to repent of that. But my failings don’t devalue scripture. They are the word of God, used to save and instruct.

We would do well to read, learn and do.