Neglecting the Way to Wisdom by Candice Watters on 09/12/2006 at 4:47 PM

Recently I heard two people I look up to praise J.I. Packer's Knowing God as foundational for Christian living. So I started reading it. One thing that's jumped off the page is the importance of biblical literacy; something my generation and following is woefully lacking.

I suspected as much based on the many emails we receive at Boundless asking things like, "is premarital sex really wrong?" "why is premarital sex a sin -- it's never mentioned in the Bible?" and "what's the big deal about having a wedding ceremony; isn't having sex the same as becoming man and wife?" And these are just the most memorable of the many examples.

But now I know that my hunch is more than anecdotal. The recent Barna Update referred to below reported that "despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years -- and often beyond that." What does this disengagement look like?

Among other things, "twentysomethings have significantly lower levels of ... time spent alone studying and reading the Bible."

This runs counter to Paul's instruction in Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly ... with all wisdom." It's no small thing when we cut ourselves off from the Bible.

Packer challenges his readers asking,

How long is it since you read right through the Bible? Do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do even with the newspaper? What fools some of us are! -- and we remain fools all our lives simply because we will not take the trouble to do what has to be done to receive the wisdom which is God's free gift.

In my case I'd have to substitute library books for the newspaper. In your case, maybe it's television, video games or magazines. I suspect for many it's their iPod. The point is that our lives will bear the fruit of what shapes our beliefs. And if the Bible isn't the primary input, we're in trouble.