Who is a Man of the Book?

A man of the Book knows the Book. Being so, this man reads the Book. To Him the Book is a Food eternally more important than His morning meal. The Book refreshed His Soul and Sustains His Heart. This man cannot survive without the Book. He reads it and is intimately familiar with it.  He memorizes the Book.  He fills his head with as much of the Book as is possible.  He thinks about the Book and learns it front to back.   The man of the Book studies the Book. The man does not simply read the Book and forget its words. This man labors with the Book. Hard. He grapples with the meaning of the Book. He struggles with his own ignorance and goes to war against ideas he holds that run contrary to the Book. The man is sold out to the teachings of the Book and works with all his might to know and understand the Book. To this man, true teachings are not teachings of the Book unless they are lived according to the Book. Likewise, true living is not true living by the Book unless it is informed by the teachings of the Book. The man of the Book knows the Purpose of the Book and properly worships the Author and Object of the Book. The man of the Book knows Who ultimately wrote the Book. To this man, the words of the Book are breathed by Divinity and are worthy to be followed before Divinity. The man of the Book submits to this Divinely Authored Book and to the Book’s Teachings. He knows his need for the Message of the Book and is properly humbled and awed by it.

The man of the Book intimately knows and constantly lives the teachings of the Book. He strives to be more and more like the Object of the Book and ardently worships the Author of the Book. He understands the Gift of the Book and is eternally full of humility and thanksgiving to the Giver of the Book.

May God ever and always give us Grace to be men and women of the Book.