A WORD FOR TODAY, October 13, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, October 13, 2025
“He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16, WEB
I was reading through the comments under a Facebook advertisement for a book I have been thinking about buying. It is a theological book about the tenets of the Christian faith. I wasn’t sure about the author, and I was interested in seeing people’s opinion about him and his work. I hoped to see intelligent responses, both positive and negative. If you have spent any time in the comment section of any Facebook post, you know that you will find everything, from intelligent answers to attacks to insults. Some comments are helpful, others often sound foolish or arrogant.
One of the comments under this post was “Read the Bible.” This comment is common under theological books, commentaries, devotionals, or other books about faith. It made me chuckle a bit because most people who would buy a book like this do read the Bible. I am following two separate reading plans right now, as well as the reading I do for the studies and devotionals I write. We don’t read these books instead of the Bible, we read it alongside the Bible. The books help us see the scriptures from a different perspective. They help us to understand the language and cultural aspects that impact the meaning of the texts. There are people much smarter than me that can help me see the scriptures with more depth, and I appreciate being able to pass on their knowledge to those who read my work or attend my studies.
The post is right: read the Bible. Most of us don’t have time to read deeply theological tomes with fifty-cent words or frequent use of Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. However, we need to be careful when we read the Bible that we do not allow our own biases, world view, or opinions skew our understanding of God’s grace. There are writers who will lead us astray, so we must be careful about what we read, and we need to read it parallel to the scriptures. I once shared a book with a friend and when she finished, she thought it belonged in the canon. I explained that it was just one point of view about what happened in Bible times, and that she should only rely on the scriptures as the truth. I showed her another book that gave a completely opposite perspective on the same story. One of the writers had to be wrong, their book did not tell the truth of God’s story. Human writers are fallible. We are fallible. We can read the scriptures with a skewed perspective and follow a false understanding. This is how heresy begins and is sustained by those who interpret the scriptures according to their own bias, world view, and opinions.
Read the Bible. I hope this is a habit in your daily life. If it isn’t, find a reading plan. Pick a book of the Bible and read it verse by verse. Use a daily or weekly lectionary. Pray before you read, listen for God’s voice, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand. However, remember that the Christian church has been blessed by people who are teachers and preachers, people with the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy. We need to seek God’s help in finding the right guides to help us know and understand.
God is our greatest teacher. We learn about Him from the words of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, but we can read books beside our Bible, reasoning with others about what we read to come to a more complete knowledge of the God who reveals Himself to us through His Word. Those books are not canon and will never be because they are written by fallible human beings, chosen and gifted by God for a purpose. They key is always listening for God’s voice echoing through their words, so that you are not led astray, but are built up in love into the body of Christ.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.