I have always believed that diligence yields remarkable results.   It is true that there is a happy benefit in reading the important things, just as there is for hearing and heeding them.  So building on the assurance that a truly diligent experience cannot be equated with the mere reading and reciting of what the Bible has to say we can conclude that a notable outcome is in the making when God’s word – message to humanity – receives the due diligence.  Beyond storytelling, incredible tales of triumph, and confessions of loyalty and obedience is the rich housing of Christ’s message and business in the believer.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Revelation of John 1:3

Riches housed in the believer!

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

It would  be a serious error to argue that the blessings that accrue from hearing and heeding are of the same value as the benefit that comes from simply reading or reciting.  The word of Christ comes to us from a single source: apostolic witness. There is no evidence that anyone can heed (hear, akouo, ακούω) and keep a grip on what the Lord’s witnesses had to say, and particularly what the only prophetic and summative writing contains.   The Book of Hebrews does for the Mosaic legacy and Christ what the Book  of Revelation does for Christ and history.

Read the words, heed and grasp the contents

The content of scripture is not just words. The kingdom business addressed are the things to be heard and kept. What we read can lead to a curiosity about what was said and on to the contents of the book(s). It is only the diligent who realize that reading is not diligence, and that searching for the bottom line cannot be performed by means of the sometimes accurate commentaries on the too often inaccurate translations and paraphrases.

We allow ourselves to be distracted by people who have no intention of getting to the business of Christ’s word, the richness of which is not a ton of commands, but is comprised of total wisdom, teaching and admonition, and grateful singing in the heart to God.