In my last post under this topic I posed the following proposition:
"The purposeful priority of suffering and death in the life of Jesus must
be modeled by His disciples as the purposeful and daily priority in our
own lives."
The foundation of this thinking came from my reading and reflecting on Hebrews 2:5-18. There, the writer of Hebrews is preoccupied with the suffering and death of Jesus and how it was for the purposes of our salvation. In His life and ministry Jesus was focused on His death. It was the center of the will of God for Him and, as His followers, it stands as the center of our purpose for His glory in and through our lives.
If Jesus was preoccupied, focused and lived for His death believers, in turn, are called to model the same. Jesus died, being driven by the joy that was set before Him - the Father's glory and our redemption (Hebrews 12:1-2). Our call to die daily is to be driven by the joy set before us - the magnification of the fame of Jesus in al the earth and the conversion of the lost.
In the last post I argued that dying daily was a call to "Spend Early Mornings In Communion with the Triune God." Today I want to offer a second discipline:
2. Memorize and Meditate On Large Portions of Scripture to Successfully Defeat Daily Temptations.
Every day Satan is scheming against us seeking to make us choose the passions of our life - characterized by sin and selfishness - over the disciplined practice of a daily death to self. We are not strong enough, on our own, to contend against such schemes since our own flesh participates in Satan's designs against us (see Ephesians 2:1-3)! To defeat the enemy and to tame our flesh we must follow the practice of Jesus in memorizing whole chunks of the Bible to meet the fierce and combative ways of the devil.
As a Jewish boy Jesus would have no doubt memorized the Torah as this was the standard practice. We know this as a fact of history and we also see the fruit of this discipline played out in the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus contends against the devil by quoting the scriptures He had memorized in Deuteronomy in each temptation. He quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3 in the first temptation, Deuteronomy 6:16 and Deuteronomy 6:13 in the second and third temptations, respectively. These were not random citations that Jesus pulled out of the air with the hopes that they would work. These were specific verses cited, in context, which killed the devil's sting. The Lord shows us in this exchange that the only hope we have in the temptations of life is to slay the enemy and his schemes with the sword - the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
Psalm 1 is not only the first Psalm but it represents the entire essence of the Jewish understanding of what wisdom and foolishness looks like in a life. It is no wonder, then, that the man who this psalm calls blessed is characterized as being planted by a tree that continually nourishes his life such that he is always spiritually fruitful (Psalm 1:3). He is fruitful, partly because of what he does not do (Psalm 1:1) but mainly because of what he does: he delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night (Psalm 1:2). To meditate means to speak to yourself the Word of God that you have hidden, by memorization, in your heart.
If we desire to imitate Christ and prioritize death to self on a daily basis, we must memorize large sections of the Word of God to fight victoriously. Jesus gives an astonishing promise in John 15:7,8 that is tied memorizing large portions of scripture. He promises
"If you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will
be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so
prove to be my disciples."
When Jesus says "and my words abide in you" He is not thinking, merely, having isolated assortment of scripture in our hearts. This is not how Jews understood this. Jesus was speaking of the whole of His words "abiding" (resting in and nurturing our souls) in us.
This is not to say memorizing verses is bad. Memorizing any portion of scripture is profitable. Yet, Jesus promises that when we do this - abide in Him (prayer) and have His words (teachings) abide in us, that we will bear much fruit and glorify the Father (v8). In the context bearing fruit means to love (John 15:9-13) but it also is the ability to endure the sure and certain temptations from the enemy and the world (John 15:18-16:4).
Please ponder and meditate on this statement: "Overcoming temptation is a fruit that leads to greater fruitfulness!" We tend to think that overcoming temptation only leads to fruitfulness but it is first a fruit within itself. Most of us succumb to temptation and are overcome by our passions not because we do not love Jesus. We lose because we do practice a key discipline that produces the fruit of spiritual endurance - the memorization of scripture in context.
Read Psalm 1 again. This time read it in light of the truth that "overcoming temptation is a fruit." In the Psalm we see that the man's ability to overcome the temptations of verse 1 was the fruit of his discipline practice of memorizing the Word of God (Psalm 1:2). He could not have won otherwise. In same way we must understand the temptation of Jesus. He was fruitful in overcoming the devil's temptation only because He had memorized the Word of God in context.
The reason I focus on memorizing the Word of God in context is because, in the temptation of Jesus, we see that the devil knows enough of the Word but quotes it "out of context." Jesus was able to overcome the devil because He understood the context of scripture and was not fooled by the devil. This is why memorizing large chunks of scripture is necessary for fighting temptation (and false teaching!) and should be a priority to believers.
So, I want to offer the strategy I use when I memorize scripture. Do not be intimidated by the steps. It is easier than it may appear, especially after you done it a few times.
Select a portion of scripture to memorize. Let's use Ephesians for our example.
Get a good understanding of Ephesians and why Paul wrote it before you begin memorizing. You can get this information from any good study Bible's introduction to Ephesians. After you understand why Paul wrote the letter memorize each verse and chapter in light of that purpose.
If you are new to memorizing scripture give yourself thirty days to memorize each chapter. You may be able to do it faster but be careful to remember that this is not a race. It is a spiritual discipline, so don't rush it. Divide the number of verses in the chapter by 30. So, Ephesians chapter 1 has 23 verses. Twenty-three divided by thirty is 0.76. Rounding that number up means that you would memorize one verse a day.
Here is a plan for how to memorize:
a. Read verse 1 ten times looking at and reading every word.
b. Then, Close your Bible and then recite the verse ten times. If you need to
peak at the verse that's okay. Just remember that you want to be able to
recite it ten times without looking.
c. When you come to memorize verse 2 repeat steps a and b above. This
time do the following: once you have memorized verse 2, recite verses 1
and 2 together, ten times.
5. Read Ephesians chapter 1 everyday for thirty days as you memorize it. This will
not only help to reinforce what you have memorized but will prepare you for the
the verses yet to come.
6. Get a good commentary and read the notes for the verses as you memorize
them. This will further help you to understand the context of the chapter and
strengthen this discipline for fruitfulness