05/14/2024 – Read and Live the Bible Passionately
Hosea 3: 1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
We live the Word passionately twice: when we meditate on it and when we put it into practice. It is easy to read any fragment of the Bible with indifference. Many times, we read about great tragedies in the Bible without any empathy for the servants of God who suffered in them. Other times we yawn reading about the wonderful miracles the Lord performed, as if the glory manifested there had lost its luster with the passage of time. Every time we read how the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, our hearts must burn with the passion of those who witnessed this miracle, and with the joy of Martha and Mary as they embrace again their brother who had died. We must rejoice in the assurance of our own resurrection affirmed there. These are our miracles, Christ’s miracles for His church, the miracles that confirm to the world without a doubt that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth.
Knowing the context of what we read is important. This is one of the most important rules of Biblical interpretation. It has often been said that a text without context is a pretext. But equally important is to introduce ourselves to that context to live with the participants the situations, emotions, and passions that the Holy Spirit embodied for us in the Bible.
The Word of God is alive. In it we do not find isolated concepts and hypothetical philosophies, the Bible has been lived! Every word has come true in the suffering of battle and the joy of victory, in the tears and blood of God’s people. God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman so that he could experience firsthand the pain and conflict that comes with infidelity. This Word has been written, literally with blood: With the blood of the Son of God! With the blood of God’s people!
Every time you read the Bible or hear its preaching, live it in such a way that your heart burns with passion. When you hear God’s voice in his Word, do not harden your heart. Do not ignore it or reject it. It will light a fire in your heart.