One thing that I’ve noted over the years is that an increase in biblical knowledge brings with it the temptation to believe that such knowledge somehow also makes the bearer of that knowledge cleverer than the ‘man in the pew’, the assumedly less well read believer. For many such the term biblicist implies ‘simplicist’ – it’s used to look down at those who haven’t to their educated minds read widely enough to understand the complexity of Scripture or the various theological perspectives that learned theologians discuss. This is nothing less than arrogance. Straightforward biblical theology is rarely held naively, and we should never assume so.

Of course, people being people, wouldn’t we expect this to have been an issue from the outset? Yes! Just take a look at the fledgling Corinthian church. By the time Paul writes his first (extant) letter to them there is evidence of partisanship and rivalries. There is already a hubris based on additional knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 3:18 Paul warns those ‘wise’ believers:

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

This ‘wisdom’ is not godly wisdom. It promotes pride, and the disdain of others who apparently don’t possess the same ‘wisdom’. This is not Paul advocating against scholarly study or training in the Word, but it is simply that: it must be study in Word. Paul’s concluding statement on the matter is found in 1 Corinthians 4:6ff. It’s this statement in verse 6 that sums things up. Paul has taught on the subject as he has:

that you may learn by us: not beyond what is written

Now, that looks like bad grammar, and scholars will tell you that it is. But Paul is not averse to using bad grammar for good purposes. Firstly, Paul is teaching a lesson that he wants the self proclaimed wise ones to learn; secondly the lesson is this: not beyond what is written. Our English translations feel obliged to add a verb – not to go beyond what is written. But that is only to satisfy their need for it to read well in English. If it didn’t read well in Greek, then what’s the problem? I believe that Paul is simply quoting a well acknowledged principle. ‘Not beyond what is written’ – that is our measure for all our theological endeavours. This is not to decry scholarship, but to direct it. Whatever we do, we cannot incorporate that which is not Scripture and teach it as if it was. That’s what the Pharisees did; that’s what the Roman church began to do; that’s what Corinth was beginning to do; that’s what every generation is prone to do. Paul’s statement is existential. For the believer there is nothing beyond what is written (and therefore we can’t go beyond that, the injunction is implied).

So, where does that leave us? Good scholarship for the believer should help us to better understand what has been written: God’s Word. That is what is God breathed; that is what accomplishes God’s purposes. There’s a temptation to demonstrate that we are widely read. We should instead be deeply read. No thinking Christian would deny that we could study God’s Word all our lives and continue to gain from it day by day, year by year. So, keep the mantra in your mindset: not beyond what is written. You won’t be poorer for it; You won’t be narrower for it. You will more deeply plumb the riches of God’s divinely revealed communication with us, for our own good and for God’s glory.