What’s the best way to understand something the Bible says that you don’t get—or you think you get, but it’s really important because it will cost you a lot and you don’t want to mess up? When you have an important issue that you’re trying to resolve biblically, but the answer doesn’t jump out at you right away, should you seek out other Christians’ counsel (a pastor or friend), or do research online or in commentaries, or consult applicable verses in different translations? All of these are good, but there’s another, perhaps better way.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)
You can do all of these things (just be careful of general online questions—you’re likely to get conflicting and incorrect info there), but there’s one thing that’ll help you even more. What is it? It’s memorization of the applicable passages.
Notice I didn’t say, the applicable verses. Verses can be misunderstood if out of context. But when you grab an entire section—maybe 10-15 verses—you’ll get a more full understanding of what God is saying. But why memorization? Can’t I just open my Bible or phone app and read what it says when I need it?
Well, it’s not working, is it?! You’re reading it, but still not understanding the answer. But what is committing verses to memory going to do that simply reading didn’t? Well, in the process of getting them into your memory—your mind—you will have to read them an awful lot of times, and say them an awful lot of times, and then say individual phrases of individual verses an awful number of times, and then say two phrases of the verse an awful number of times, then put it all together in a verse an awful number of times, then put together two verses, and then three and four verses—an awful number of times.
Are you getting it now? By the time you’ve memorized a longer passage, you will have said it to yourself, one phrase at at time, so many times that you will have really mulled it over—really chewed on it extensively.
I’ve personally found that just the process of reading out loud the section I’m beginning to memorize brings to my mind truths I might not have quite caught before, because our minds play tricks on us when we read silently. We read it, thinking we’ve got it, but when we force ourselves to read each individual word aloud (like when we’re trying to accurately memorize)—when we more slowly articulate—we catch things we didn’t before.
I recently memorized a good portion of Romans 8, and learned so much I didn’t quite get before. Such as the fact that, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14 NKJV) Which casts quite a different light on the sometimes-heard teaching of the existence of carnal Christianity.
Look at this section, and tell me—honestly—if it says you can be both carnal and spiritual concurrently:
“That the righteous requirement of the law [the required holiness we can’t do on our own] might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:4-11 NKJV)
I’ll let you form your own conclusion, but this passage of Scripture seems to strongly argue that being carnally minded (led by our own flesh) and spiritually minded (led by the Spirit) are exclusive—they can’t exist in one person at the same time. It also says, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6 NKJV) Again—can you have death, and life and peace, existing in one person at the same time?
It says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1 NKJV), which implies that there is condemnation for those who are not in Christ Jesus, who walk according to the flesh.
It’s a lot to mull over, isn’t it? My purpose here isn’t to present doctrine on carnality, but do you see how by dissecting and examining individual extended passages—like you’re forced to do when you memorize—you catch things that you might not otherwise?
So the next time you are confronted with a decision or action that needs resolution and the consequences of a mistake are high, give yourself a moment to sit down with the passage of God’s Word that’s applicable and start reading it aloud to yourself slowly, word by word. Then take the first verse, and begin committing it to memory, until you’re done with the entire section of Scripture. I guarantee you that if you ask Him in a submissive spirit, God will open your eyes to biblical truth long before you’re done!
Dear Lord God,
Help me have a teachable heart; open my eyes to Your truth! Amen.
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