Back in the 1990s, when I did my degrees, I was a student at the University of Cambridge. That was an intense, and long, experience, and it comes with a range of lifetime benefits.

One of those benefits is I, as a graduate of the University, have access to the Cambridge University Library for life, and access to the various department and college libraries. It is kind of hard to describe just how useful that access can be.

The main University library is huge. In my first month as an undergraduate, I went to the Library to register for a reader’s ticket. I was used, or so I thought, to large libraries, having been a pupil librarian at my school, which itself had a very respectable library. Upon receiving my ticket, I thought I’d have a look at the main catalog room. In those days, of course, the catalog was a series of cards in little wooden drawers.

The catalog room in the Cambridge University Library was several times larger than the entire library that my school had. I was somewhat overwhelmed, and I had to go back to my room in college for a little lie down.

Fast forward a decade and a half. There were various parts of the Bible that I had taken a particular interest in. My interest went well beyond what standard books could describe. So I did what any sensible person would do, and I took a few days off work and visited the Cambridge University Library. That was fun, and intellectually and spiritually profitable, and I ended up doing it again on several occasions, often walking halfway across Cambridge to visit relatively small department libraries.

As I said, the process was intellectually and spiritually profitable. But did it make me a better Christian?

My answer is, perhaps surprisingly, no. I was not a better Christian because of hundreds of hours of study of a few verses. In some denominations, including our own, Bible study is highly prized, almost seen as a cardinal virtue. The best possible thing you can do is study the Bible, is it not?

There is nothing wrong with intense Bible study, and we have all benefitted from other people’s study, but when Bible study is elevated to being a virtue, there is a problem. Not everyone can do it. I was able to get lost in the depths of one of the greatest libraries in the world, but the overwhelming majority of people in the world today don’t have that opportunity. It would be a very strange definition of “Christian” that meant that someone who was lucky like me was a better Christian than someone who did not have the same opportunities. It would be a very strange definition of “Christian” that made it easier for a educated 21st Century man to be a “better Christian” than a hard-working 1st Century fisherman from Galilee.

What then does it mean to be Christian?

Let’s answer that question by turning to the words of Christ himself – always a good way to answer such questions!

Mark 12:28-34 (NIV)

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus replied with two.

• The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love God, love your neighbor.

Christ did not add a third commandment “And make sure you get at least 40 hours of dedicated Bible study a quarter!” To be sure, Bible study for some of us may be an aspect of loving God, and for some of us it may be an aspect of loving your neighbor, but it is not a prerequisite for either.

There is a parable that I refer to a lot, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. It is long, so I won’t read it all now, but there is one part that I will read.

Matthew 25: 34:40 (NIV)

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

The righteous, those who will inherit the Kingdom, are those who helped the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned.

The righteous are not those who have studied the Bible for hour upon hour. That is not to say that it is wrong to study the Bible, but it is to say that studying the Bible does not make you righteous. Hours in libraries does not make you a Christian.

Loving God, loving your neighbor are what makes you Christian.

This makes me think of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans had (and have) a different set of holy texts to the 1st Century Jews; even if the Samaritan had done hours of “Bible study”, to the Jews at the time he would have been studying the wrong books, and coming to the wrong conclusions. Yet the Samaritan is the one who is praised in that parable, because he loved his neighbor.

There is a nice soundbite from Paul in Romans that I think nicely compliments the two parables I have mentioned, and ties them back to the two commandments.

Romans 10:9 (NIV)

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you declare with your mouth and believe in your heart you will be saved. While intense Bible study may help with those things, it isn’t actually a requirement.

Every Sunday, we meet together in one way or another. The central part of that meeting is when we share the bread and wine. It was at the Last Supper that Jesus gave one of my favorite descriptions of what it means to be a Christian, and you will note that Bible study is not part of it.

John 15:9-16 (NIV)

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.