When We Read Ourselves Into the Text

A Texas lawmaker, James Talarico, described his election win by reaching for the Bible. He compared it to David's defeat of Goliath and invoked Jesus overturning the tables in the temple. The comparison is confident. It is also worth sitting with, because most of us do a version of the same thing. We open Scripture and look for ourselves in it.

There is nothing wrong with taking courage from the account of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. The danger is quieter than that. It is the habit of reading a passage to approve what we already want, rather than letting it ask us hard questions. The temple scene in the Gospels is not a mascot for victory. It is a confrontation with God's own people.

A review of John Mark Comer's "Into the Quiet" raised a related worry: that a spirituality built around quiet could quickly become disconnected from Scripture itself. Silence is good. But silence is not the same as listening to the text.

So read slowly today. Ask what the passage meant before it meant anything to you. Let it speak first.