Bob Tamasy
The ability to read is greatly underrated. It’s like receiving a gift that continues to keep giving. It’s like being entrusted with a key that opens an infinite number of treasures. As a boy I became an avid reader, taking me on adventures with teen inventor Tom Swift, solving mysteries with the Hardy Boys, traveling to distant lands through books like Treasure Island, Hans Brinker and Ivanhoe, and enjoying sports exploits with the likes of Chip Hilton and Mel Martin.
I also devoured books about American history, nature, science fiction, mystery, and a host of other topics. My younger days would have been impoverished without being able to read and learn about so many intriguing topics. For this reason, I believe literacy should receive paramount attention in our society. Gaining the capacity to read can provide a pathway out of poverty and into prosperity.
However, the power of reading involves more than being able to recognize letters, words and even comprehend sentences. Because we can read many things but if we don’t put into use the information we acquire, we’ve gained little.
Recently during a discussion a friend suggested an acronym that illustrates this point. It’s READ: Read. Extract. Apply. Do. He explained that when we read something, we should seek not only to recognize words and meanings, or even for intellectual understanding, but also for application – striving to put what we have read into action.
For instance, when we buy a new kitchen appliance it comes with directions for use. We might read them, but if we don’t follow what they say we should do, we could damage the product – or worse. When we rented a cabin to attend a family function, the owners had left a list of instructions we needed to take care of before we left. Reading the list would have been of no use if we hadn’t followed up on what it said.
We could cite many other examples, but the wisdom of ‘Read – Extract – Apply – Do’ is particularly vital as we read the Scriptures. In fact, the apostle James gave this admonition to followers of Jesus as he taught how they should conduct their everyday lives:
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).
While He never used the READ acronym, Jesus Christ was clearly a strong advocate of it in principle. He found it particularly applicable for responding to accusations leveled at him by the Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious leaders who opposed His ministry. On numerous occasions He would chide His hearers, “Have you not read…?”
For instance, in rebuking the Pharisees for complaining when they saw His hungry disciples picking heads of grain on the Sabbath day, He said, “‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.’ Then He said, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’” (Luke 6:3-5).
Another time the Pharisees were challenging Jesus on His views about divorce. He responded, “Haven’t you read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:4).
One day the Sadducees, another group of religious leaders, were attempting to trick Jesus with a question about people being resurrected of the dead. Jesus replied, “…have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26).
And speaking to the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders who confronted him about His teachings, Jesus gave a parable about a vineyard owner and then concluded, “Haven’t you read this scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mark 12:10).
In each instance, Jesus knew the religious had literally read the words from the scrolls that were so fastidiously stored in the synagogues and temples. They had read what the Scriptures said, and perhaps even worked to extract their meaning. Their fault came in failure to properly apply and put into action what they were saying.
The same can be said for us today. It’s said that while many homes across the United States have at least one copy of the Bible, only about nine percent of professing Christians actually read the Bible on a regular basis. As for how many of those are diligent to apply and do what they read, we can only assume it’s less than nine percent.
The Scriptures assure us that salvation – receiving God’s forgiveness for our sins and being assured of eternal life – is solely a gift of His grace and mercy. At the same time, we’re instructed to live out what we read in God’s Word. As the apostle Paul urged believers in ancient Philippi, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). In other words, as James the apostle said, don’t just read and listen to the Word of God. Do what it says to do!
* * *
Robert J. Tamasy is a veteran journalist, former newspaper editor, and magazine editor. Bob has written, co-authored and edited more than 20 books. These include ”Marketplace Ambassadors”; “Business At Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace”; “Tufting Legacies,” “The Heart of Mentoring,” and “Pursuing Life With a Shepherd’s Heart.” He writes and edits a weekly business meditation, “Monday Manna,” which is translated into nearly 20 languages and distributed via email around the world by CBMC International. The address for Bob's blog is www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com. His email address is btamasy@comcast.net.