Theology Thursday: The Most Important Question

You know the feeling when you’re reading something and a specific paragraph or idea jumps off the page and whacks you in the head? I had one of those moments several years ago when I was reading Eat This Book, by Eugene Peterson.

Here’s the paragraph:

“If I’m not living in active response to the living God revealed in the Bible, reading about his creation / salvation / holiness won’t interest me—at least not for long. The most important question we ask of any text isn’t “What does this mean?” but “What can I obey?” Simple obedience will open up our lives to a text more than any number of Bible studies, dictionaries, and concordances.

Wow! That still hits me hard. It’s not, “what do these verses mean?” It’s, “what am I supposed to obey.”

What do you think? Agree or disagree? Has everyone always known this and I’m just now catching up? I’d love to hear your thoughts.