I heard something interesting recently that has stuck with me--"The most important aspect of the Christian life is prayer." Interesting because no doubt some would counter that the Bible is primary. Right up front I will say this is a false dichotomy; no serious Christian would question that both are absolutely vital and to that extent the debate is useless. Still, I'm intrigued enough to dig into this a little.
Picture a person in a remote area of the earth who has no Bible, perhaps has never heard the gospel, and maybe never even heard of Jesus. Can--should--this person cry out to God in prayer anyway? Absolutely yes. Romans 1:19-20 teaches that we are able to perceive the reality of God through His creation, and that furthermore He has revealed Himself to humans via their inner consciousness. Verse 20 even concludes by saying if we don't know He's real we have no excuse, period. The fact that this person has no Bible doesn't negate the fact that the biblical principle stands. If he or she is remote enough from popular culture or the world system, and remains relatively unaffected by the world's wisdom, s/he may even cry out to God more readily, because God's appeal to that person's inner consciousness is less tainted. Say this one pleads to the true God for help, or for truth. Will God answer? Yes! And because we can also argue that with God and people it's all about relationship, and relationship means direct communication, we can make a case that the most important, the most primal, aspect of the Christian life is prayer. Did I, smack-dab in the midst of Western culture, cry out to God before I read the Bible? I did.
However, some will argue for the primacy of the word, and they have a lot of biblical legs to stand on. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (NIV; emphasis mine). Here, Paul instructs Timothy that the person in possession of all of Scripture is thoroughly equipped for everything good. That would seem to cover it, wouldn't it? Another important verse is Romans 10:17: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (NKJV). Put this together with Hebrews 11:6--"And without faith, it is impossible to please God..." (NIV)--and we can follow the sequence:
Word > Hearing > Faith > Pleasing God
How, then, do we please God unless it all starts with the word? We don't. But perhaps the most compelling argument is from John 1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning" (AMP 2015; emphasis mine). Here we have absolute proof that Jesus is the Word. And we know that His word (the Bible) is living because He is living. How, then, can the W(w)ord be less primary to the Christian life than anything?
Again, in a very real sense none of this matters. No Christian who is sold out to God would propose that we don't need both all the time, every day, like we need the air we breathe. Why, then, do such discussions even arise? I suggest for this reason:
Though many Christian practices (reading/listening to/hearing the word, prayer, baptism, communion, obedience, etc.) should be common to us all, we are all individuals in Christ: no two alike, each one a different specific part of the body. Therefore the assignments on our lives differ. Let's say this one has a passion for worship, even though she also partakes in all other aspects of the Christian walk. Let's say that one has a passion for fasting and prayer, even though he also fulfills other roles in the church. And then there's the one who studies the Bible every chance she gets, maybe even taking classes or getting a degree, without ignoring the rest. And the ones who operate in "this gift, but not that," as the Holy Spirit distributes them according to His will. Which area is "more important" to each of these people? The one God has especially anointed them in, drawn them to, gifted them for. Even the world knows we should play to our strengths, and it's no different in the church.
In general, prayer and the Bible are both so mandatory for us that it's impossible to say one is more important. But as an area of concentration for a particular individual--the scholar/scribe or the prayer warrior, say--one or the other may receive slightly more focus, as a part of God's overall grand plan.
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