6 reasons we need to memorize, not just learn, the Bible
In the modern age, there’s not much reason to go out of our way to memorize anything. Just about any piece of information we could want to know is easily accessible with just a few touches of a screen, or even by summoning Siri, Cortana, and Alexa. We can look up most anything anytime we want this way, from scientific facts to trivia to news to technical instructions to Scripture passages.
Combine this with the fact that we are constantly bombarded with information at a rate unprecedented in human history. I don’t recall the source, but I’ve seen it very believably claimed that a single edition of the New York Times today contains more information than people encountered in their entire lifetimes a few centuries ago. So that means we must filter out the vast majority of information we take in each day. Anything that’s not immediately useful is usually seen as expendable, because if we ever need it again we can just look it up in seconds.
All of this has led to a dramatic decline in a discipline that was just decades ago considered essential to even (or especially) the youngest Christians: memorization of the Bible. And it’s not that all this has made us worse at memorizing. It’s just that we find more interesting things to memorize, such as song lyrics and movie lines. Most of what we memorize is inadvertent; it’s what catches our attention the most. Rote repetition and memorization isn’t something many of us know how to do efficiently. And even what we do study and make an effort to learn, like studying for a test, we usually forget it quickly after we no longer have an immediate need for it.
That approach is fine for a biology test, which you just need to pass and will probably never use again. But it doesn’t cut it for the word of God, which is supposed to be the foundation we live our lives by. I learned this early on in my spiritual walk, and spent many years memorizing the Scriptures through Bible quizzing. I’m not going to say I lived a better or more spiritual life than those around me who didn’t memorize the Bible, but I will say that I lived a better and more spiritual life, and was closer to God, than I would have if I had not made Scripture memorization a constant practice. So here are 6 reasons why we need to memorize Scripture:
- It’s the foundation we live our lives by. One of the common, spiritual-sounding excuses we sometimes make is something like, “Understanding the meaning and ideas behind it is more important than rote memorization.” But try that logic with the alphabet, the foundation of our written language. If we want to understand written English, we can’t just memorize the ideas behind the alphabet. We have to memorize the rather complicated grammar and spelling system of English itself. We can’t get by with approximation or summary knowledge. If we can’t get by with a passing or summary knowledge of the alphabet if we want to write and read English, how can we get by with a passing or summary knowledge of the Bible if we want to live a godly life?
- The Bible itself indicates we should. The longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, is about the importance of knowing and memorizing God’s word. The psalmist says, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” He expresses not only a reverence and respect, but a passionate love, for God’s word. It was his lifeline for living, and he put as much of it in his heart as he could.
- It’s the example repeatedly laid out for us. Part of the reason the Bible doesn’t harp repeatedly on the importance of memorization is because in ancient times, it was taken for granted that everyone would memorize Scripture. But you can see the effects of it from reading the New Testament. From Jesus, the poor carpenter of Nazareth, to the scholarly apostle Paul, to the illiterate fishermen Peter, they quote the Scriptures — even verses we would consider obscure and rarely used — all the time, and use them to explain who God is and exhort us to Christ-like living.
- It was Jesus’ primary weapon. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, he employed one singular tactic to resist: He quoted Scripture. He spoke words of truth to counter the words of falsehood. He said it was as necessary to live as bread (Matthew 4:4). We cannot argue with the devil. He is smarter than we are. The only thing powerful enough to refute any spiritual opposition is the truth of God’s own word. To use that weapon, we have to be as familiar with it as possible.
- We need it to be the primary voice in our thoughts. Both when we’re facing the big questions and problems of life, and when we’re making everyday decisions, we need to hear God’s voice the most. What God says about something is bigger, wiser, and realer than anything anyone else says. But how can we expect to have the wisdom and motivation to make godly decisions if the words we take to heart the most, or the advice we remember most specifically, is that of fallible (or sometimes egregiously wrong) people? When we’re going through difficulties, what voice do we want ringing through our heads: some pop song about how life or friends or relationships suck, or the words of God? When you have a friend who needs spiritual guidance, what voice do we want to pop into our minds first: our own opinions, the opinions of some popular author, or the word of God? Do we want to have to look up the verse on our phone to see what exactly it says, or do we want to be able to share God’s word from the heart? When you memorize Scripture, and spend the time with it that’s necessary to do so, the words of God are much more likely to naturally come to you.
- It will renew our minds. The more we repeat Scripture to ourselves, the more thoroughly it’s ingrained in our brains, the more we will begin to think about it without even trying. Thinking of the Scriptures can become instinctive to us, and understanding the Scriptures can become more natural to us. And the more we can understand things from God’s point of view, the more we can learn to think like God. As long as we make sure we are finding the meaning and application of the texts we memorize, we can learn to make radical changes in the way we think and live. We can hate sin like God does, love people like God does, and go out and live like Christ did. There are a million voices in the world, even among friends and family sometimes, that either tell us things contrary to God’s word, or even tell us things that may agree with God’s word but carry far less weight of authority behind them. We need Scripture to drown out those voices and become the supreme voice in our minds. We need the ultimate authority of Scripture to shape the way we think.
So, the discipline of memorizing Scripture is not obsolete. It is in fact more important than at any other time in history, because we have more distractions than ever before. Knowing God’s word is absolutely essential to remaining closely connected with God today, and it’s the most authoritative source of inspiration we can find for living a godly life that often runs so counter to the culture. No Christian should neglect it.
