Trevin Wax | Knowable Word

The Main Reason for Studying the Bible

April 13, 2022 By Peter Krol

Trevin Wax has quite a thoughtful piece called “Don’t Miss the Main Point of Bible Study.” In it, he addresses the common temptations to study the Bible for education or daily inspiration. Such things are worthless, unless they draw us nearer to the Lord to behold his face, that we might break forth into exultation of his glory.

The task of Christian theology isn’t one of invention or establishment; it’s about discovery and explanation. We’ve stumbled across something real, and as we behold with awe the wonders of this reality we seek to expound on it faithfully, trusting that what we’ve seen will change us. “We are changed into the one we see,” said Gregory the Great.

Wax is right. This is something we must not miss. Check it out!

How Bible Reading Will Change Your Life

December 12, 2018 By Peter Krol

Trevin Wax makes an important point in his article “Routine Bible Reading Can Change Your Life.” Speaking of the perennial guilt many people feel when they consider trying once again to pursue a plan of regular Bible reading:

“Why do so many Christians start with a strong commitment and yet lose their way when reading the Bible? One reason may be that we have too high of an expectation of what we will feel every day when we read. We know this is God’s Word and that He speaks to us through this Book, and yet so many times, when we’re reading the assigned portion of Scripture for the day, it all feels so, well, ordinary…”
“I sympathize with Christians who feel this way. We’re right to approach the Bible with anticipation, to expect to hear from God in a powerful and personal way. But the way the Bible does its work on our hearts is often not through the lightning bolt, but through the gentle and quiet rhythms of daily submission, of opening up our lives before this open Book and asking God to change us. Change doesn’t always happen overnight. Growth doesn’t happen in an instant. Instead, it happens over time, as we eat and drink and exercise. The same is true of Scripture reading.”

He goes on to explain why these things are so. Check it out!

The Knowable Word is Not an Easy Word

December 18, 2013 By Peter Krol

When a few friends and I started this blog, we did so under the assumption that ordinary people can learn to study the Bible. God’s word is knowable, and you don’t have to be a superstar PhD theologian to learn to study it.

I retain that conviction as firmly as ever, though Trevin Wax recently wrote of a helpful qualification to this conviction.

“Stress the simplicity of the Bible,” he writes, “and the people you are hoping will read the Bible next year may begin to wonder if they’re just too dumb to understand it. I wonder if, in our efforts to get people reading Scripture, we might be minimizing the tough parts.”

I trust that in writing of how ordinary people can learn to study the Bible, I don’t unintentionally communicate that the Bible is easy. “There are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16, ESV). To avoid this danger, we must be taught and stabilized.

That doesn’t mean we should rely on the experts to tell us what to think. It simply means the hard work is all worth it.

I highly recommend the rest of Wax’s article.

Check it out!

Why We Keep Studying the Bible

October 2, 2013 By Peter Krol

“I had to apologize to my son recently,” writes Trevin Wax at Baptist Press. He had led his son to believe going to church and attending Christian School and studying the Bible was more about education than about worship.

The boy thought he was finished, since he had learned all the Bible stories, songs, and memory verses. But Mr. Wax had to remind his son (and himself) that the studies and stories were intended to develop us as a people who worship God. They’re not just communicating information.

As you grow in Bible study, are you doing it to learn more? To gain more knowledge? To be able to answer people’s questions?

Or are you doing it to know God better?

Check it out!