The Read

Reading is important. If you had told me this 8 years ago I would’ve said, “Uh-huh, whatever.” If you had told me this even 5 years ago the answer would remain the same. But reading is important.

Classic novels are fantastic, a good piece of fiction is a happy read, autobiography insightful, and textbooks… well they’re textbooks what do you want me to say. But there is one type of book, which stands above all others, namely Theology. (Let me add a qualifier, *good* Theology.)

Theology-the study of God- must be the most important type of reading we can partake in; for, reasonably speaking, if all the world is created by God then all the studies and disciplines contained within creation (engineering, medicine, philosophy, anthropology, etc.) are studies in creation. However, the study of God would be the study of the maker of all other disciplines (the maker of all creation). Therefore, “The highest and most excellent knowledge we may possess is that of God… (John Calvin)”

“It is a thing infinitely good in itself that God’s glory should be known by a glorious society of created beings. And that there should be in them an increasing knowledge of God to all eternity, is worthy to be regarded by him, to whom it belongs to order what is fittest and best. If existence is more worthy than defect and non-entity, and if any created existence is in itself worthy to be, then knowledge is; and if any knowledge, then the most excellent sort of knowledge, viz. that of God and his glory. This knowledge is one of the highest, most real, and substantial parts of all created existence, most remote from non-entity and defect. (Jonathan Edwards ‘The End for which God Created the World’)”

All this to say, you exist, you live and move and have breath therefore strive to know that which is ‘highest, most real, and substantial’ namely God and his glory, for it is furthest from non-existence. But how is this possible, to know God and his glory?

1) Revelation, it is impossible to know God and his glory unless you be apart of that ‘glorious society’ the Church (capital ‘C’ means those redeemed by the finished work of Jesus, not merely on a membership role).

2) Reading. Reading good biblical theological books. Books like John Piper’s “Desiring God” or Charles Spurgeon’s “The Treasury of David” or Jonathan Edwards “Religious Affections” books that make you grab a dictionary and look up a word. Books that move your soul to humility. Books that make you weep from realization that your ‘god’ is not the God.

“This knowledge [of God and his glory] is one of the highest, most real, and substantial parts of all created existence, most remote from non-entity and defect.” Read. Theological. Books.