SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING vs. INTELLECTUAL MEMORISATION.
– Fr. Matta el-Meskeen
The aim in reading the Bible is understanding, not study or investigation. There is a difference between spiritual understanding and intellectual memorisation. Spiritual understanding is the acceptance of a divine truth, that steadily grows, until it fills all. If the mind and its reactions are brought into willing obedience to that truth, the divine truth continues to permeate and develop the mind. Ephesians 3:19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Knowing the love of God is far above the level of human knowledge. It is foolish to try and investigate the things of God with the intellect. Rather, it is man who must yield to the love of God, so that his mind can be open to the divine truth. Then he will receive surpassing knowledge.
Intellectual memorisation demands that a person pass from a state of submission to the truth (through understanding) to a state of mastery over it and possession of it. It requires the mind to progress step by step through investigation until it is on a level with the truth, then little by little rise above it until it can control it, recall it, and repeat it at will as if the truth were a possession and the mind its owner. Memorisation makes the mind store away truth as a memory. It weakens the truth and brings minimal results. Spiritual understanding on the other hand comes to the heart first, awakens the heart to truth and expands it into all the fullness of God.
Spiritual memorisation
There is another way of memorising the word of God, not by recalling or reviewing a text whenever and however a person wishes, but whenever and however God wishes. This is when God grants by His Spirit that we understand His words, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26)
God also gives spiritual understanding to those who ask sincerely and honestly to know Him, “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:45). When the Holy Spirit recalls certain words to us, He does so in depth and breadth, not simply reminding us of a text or a verse but giving with it irresistible wisdom and spiritual power to bring out the glory of the verse and the power of God in it. A spirit of conviction is sent with the words to prick the heart. This is the striking difference between intellectual memorisation and recollection through the Holy Spirit.
Nevertheless, a disciple of Jesus must consciously read the Word of God, pondering upon it frequently and storing it up in his heart out of love and delight, “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16). The stored-up Word of God guards our hearts, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11). We should meditate on the Word (Psalm.1:2) and talk about it often to one another (Deut.6:8-9).
Academic vs inspirational meditation
There is a great difference between reciting and meditating on the Word because it is beneficial to bring joy and comfort to your spirit than memorising the Word to show off your memory skills. The awareness of the Word in your heart builds your relationship with God and strengthens your relationship with other people. Knowledge only makes us proud and has no lasting fruit.
Academic meditation is the process of logical deduction arrived at through study, research, pondering meanings of verses and their relation to each other. Inspirational meditation is a result of the experience of trials and struggles with the truth in the heart. It is supplemented by promptings of the Spirit. Academic meditation stimulates the mind but leaves the spirit unmoved. It makes the listener desire truth without showing him how to enter into it. It provides us with an image of God but cannot bring us face to face with Him. It leads to worship that is merely formal and a false intellectual devotion to the Gospel. Inspirational meditation receives divine truth through secret obedience to and faithful clinging of the heart to God in fear and humility. This builds a practical and sure relationship with God, an inner life impregnated by divine power.
Unless a person puts himself under obedience to the Word he reads and allows the Word to become a law of life, no matter what sacrifice, cost, hardship or scorn he may bear, the Word will only remain a mere repetition of empty words. Such a person seldom experiences the mysterious aid of the Holy Spirit in times of difficulty and danger.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, please open my mind to understand the Word and to be inspired and convicted by the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit and Word bring an inner revelation of God and assist me to grow in my relationship with God the Father and with You. I desire to know You, to be obedient to You and to cling to You in fear and humility. Amen.