On Bible Reading

Q&A with Mark Dever:

What’s one thing you’ve learned after years of reading the Bible about how to read the Bible well?

"That’s it’s more important that I keep doing it than what I get out of it at any particular time.

"A lot of young Christians will have an exciting quiet time on Monday and a really exciting one on Tuesday and an awesome one on Wednesday but then something happens on Thursday and they actually don’t even do it and Friday they do it and they feel guilty and it isn’t that good and Saturday they do it but it’s late and they were discouraged...and then they just get discouraged because they’re not always having a super experience. That’s where I would look at them and say, “Just keep going. Aim at obedience in a long direction set in a pattern for decades. If you just keep going you’ll gain so much by consistency and faithfulness that there’s no way you can gain just by sudden experience."

How to Criticize

Mark Dever, pastor and author in Washington D.C., gives sound advice when giving criticism. As another blogger put it, it is not only helpful but convicting:

1. "Directly, not indirectly"
2. "Seriously, not humorously"
3. "As if it's important, not casually"
4. "Privately, not publicly"
5. "Out of love for them, not to express your feeling or frustration."

Here is the explanation of each of those points.

(HT: Andy Naselli)