Illiterate or Aliterate? 

Which are you?

 

Many Christians today are not biblically illiterate; they are simply biblically aliterate.

Illiterate or aliterate. What’s the difference?

Illiterate means that you lack the ability to read and write.

Aliterate means you are able to read but you just choose not to.

So, illiterate means you can’t read and aliterate means you can, you are just unwilling.

Where am I going with this?

In today’s Christian circles and in the world around me, I see more and more a community of both believers and non-believers that are aliterate.

It’s not that they can’t read, they just don’t want to. And by read, I mean read more than a few lines on a meme, or a short summary of a news article.

I have found that in the past few years, my attention span has shortened, and I constantly fight the urge to scroll over reading a book as I lie in bed at night.

When did this change happen? I used to be an avid night reader. Well, I can tell you, it didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual lengthening of screen time and lessening of book time.

I don’t have any trouble reading a theological study book or commentary or topical book on Christian living, and I will pour diligently over these during the day as I study and prepare lessons to teach, but as my head hits the pillow, a certain laziness creeps over me and I reach for my phone, while underneath it lies a stack of half-read books.

I am not proud of this, and I feel like the Apostle Paul writing of the fight he faced, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Romans 7:19”

Now, I’m not saying that scrolling on your phone is sin, but I do feel that we could make better use of our time more often than not.

With the addition of technology into our lives and screens staring us in the face everywhere we look, it's hard to make the time to sit down and read a good book. To let yourself be taken to another world through your imagination, to see characters brought to life through the print on a page. To dive into the stories we find in the Bible. Or maybe to be encouraged, comforted or even rebuked and convicted by a book written by a Godly author hoping to help you in your Christian walk.

I know that with all the amazing advances in technology nowadays, we have the ability to tap away at our screens and read straight from our handy little devices, and I'm not saying that it’s a bad thing to make use of. What I'm getting at is, that even on our screens, we seem to have such short attention spans that we can't seem to sit still and focus for long enough to read anything of any length.

When was the last time you read a book? A whole book? Not just portions of a book. Maybe even an article of more than 500 words.

More to the point, when was the last time you read a book of the Bible? All the way through?

We have in our hands God's instruction book for life, and yet we flounder around looking for answers to life’s questions, when all the while the answers are sitting right in front of us, on our bedside tables, gathering dust.

I’m worried that as Christians, many are not only Bible illiterate, knowing little about the truths, concepts, doctrines and stories it holds, but they are also rapidly becoming Bible aliterate. They can read, they just don’t want to. They don’t see the need to.

Many Christians today are too content with getting fed by their pastors, their small group leaders, their social media Bible teachers that they neglect reading and studying the Word of God for themselves.

In Pauls epistle to Timothy, he exhorted him to pay attention and to make time for something important. Reading.

1 Timothy 4:13 KJV - Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

This idea of giving attendance to not only means be devoted to or taking heed but it is also defined as being given to or addicted to. That’s an interesting thought. Paul exhorts Timothy to be addicted to reading.

There are many people in the world who are addicted to reading, but the reading they desire is not the type Paul is instructing Timothy in.

We find an interesting verse in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 1:3 KJV - Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Here, reading is associated with hearing and keeping or obeying.

In Isaiah 34, we see a command to seek out the book of the Lord and read it.

In Exodus 24, we see the book of the covenant read to the people.

In Joshua, we see the words of the law read before all the congregation.

We see books read, laws read, letters read, prophecies read. I counted no less than 80 times the word read or a form of it mentioned in the Bible.

Reading is important. And more important than any other book, the Bible is to be read over and over.

Can I exhort you that the more you read the Bible, the more you’ll love the author. The more you learn of God, the more you will love him. And the more you love him, the more you’ll want to please him and the more you want to please him, the more you’ll serve him, and the more you serve him, the more you will build his kingdom.

Every year, I write down a list of all the books I’ve read and each year I try and improve on it.

Over the years, I have lost the taste I once had for secular books and so it takes me a lot longer to make it through a book as I have to think harder as I read, but what a blessing it is not only to read the pages of Scripture but also to be blessed and encouraged by great men and women of God who he has used to teach me to understand my Bible better.

Can I challenge you to resolve growing your reading attention to work at span? Force yourself to spend time in the Word of God daily. At first it may be difficult, but the more you discipline yourself to do it, the more you’ll want to do it. Your desire will grow. And as time goes on, you’ll find that there is not enough time in the day to do all the reading and studying you would like to do as God speaks through his Word.

I find it a sad state of affairs that so many people in our churches are disinterested in reading good, wholesome, Christian books or biographies of men and women from the past that have so much experience and insight into the Christian walk and can teach us so many things that help point us to Christ and becoming more like him.

Before I go any further, I just want to say that if you’ve read this far, you’ve just read 1247 words! I’d love for you to leave a comment on my page or on this blog letting me know what you’ve done to help discipline yourself to read more. We are to do this Christian life together and if we can encourage each other in this simple thing, then it’s a step in the right direction.

Just think of how many books of the Bible you could read if you only spent 10 minutes a day reading! Finishing a whole book is not accomplished in one big meal, but in many small meals over time. A nibble here, a nibble there.

And as we chew over what we read, it changes us.

We can never use the excuse of lack of time if we are guilty of scrolling on our phones. (Please know that I’m preaching to myself here)

If you have time to scroll, you have time to read!

And the best book to read is the Bible!

2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV - All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Let 2026 be the year that books come alive again.

And keep the Bible at the top of the stack!