John Mark Reynolds, 2004.
St. John Chrysostom: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: “Besides, even if any should be so poor, it is in their power, by means of the continual reading of the holy Scriptures which takes place here, to be ignorant of nothing contained in them. “This should give lie to the notion that the Fathers somehow wanted to keep Scripture from the people. However, having noted this, what shall we do about it? Are we reading the Bible? Are we soaking ourselves in it and being formed by it as Saint John Chrysostom suggests?God forbid that “devotional reading” or religious books substitute for a super-saturation in God’s Holy Word. How shocked Saint John would be if his own works became for our misguided age a substitute for the Gospel itself. I have never known a man who read the Bible too much, but I have known many who read it too little while preaching about its wonder. I know this for I have been one of them. As I have begun, by God’s grace, to saturate myself in the perfect and true Word of God it is changing me. There is far to go, but let us heed the teachings Saint John of the Golden Mouth, and eagerly press into God’s Word. I wonder if we should trust a pastor or teacher who does not spend large amounts of time actually reading or studying God’s Word?
