How must we receive Scripture?
The Holy Bible is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 26
5Every word of God is refined; he is a shield to those who seek refuge in him. 6Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
21Therefore, having put aside all filth and excess of evil, receive with gentleness the implanted word that is able to save your souls. 22Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man observing the face of his origin in a mirror. 24For he observed himself and went away, and immediately forgot what sort he was. 25But the one who has stooped into the perfect law of freedom and has continued, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of work, this one will be blessed in his doing.
23You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, 24For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass; the grass withers and the flower falls, 25But the word of the Lord remains forever; and this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness 17so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work
Scripture is to be received "through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice," in the words of Article IV of the Confession of Faith. The previous question taught what the Bible contains. This one teaches how the church reads it: in dependence on the Spirit, and as the standard for what we believe and how we live.
The same Spirit who breathed out the text opens the reader to it. Paul writes that "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Timothy 3:16), and the Spirit's authorship does not end at the page. James describes the right posture: "receive with gentleness the implanted word that is able to save your souls" (James 1:21). Peter says believers "have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (1 Peter 1:23), and that "the word of the Lord remains forever; and this is the word that was proclaimed to you" (1 Peter 1:25). Scripture received through the Spirit is a living word that does something to the one who receives it.
Scripture judges what the church believes and how its members live. Proverbs forbids human additions: "Every word of God is refined," and "Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6). James demands obedience: "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). The one who hears without doing is "like a man observing the face of his origin in a mirror" who "went away, and immediately forgot what sort he was" (James 1:23-24). The one who "has stooped into the perfect law of freedom and has continued" is the one who "will be blessed in his doing" (James 1:25).
For Methodists this article shapes the practice of reading. Wesley counted searching the scriptures among the instituted means of grace, and he taught that scripture is to be read with prayer, with the whole tenor of the Bible in view, and with the intention to obey. A member of the church reads the Bible expecting the Spirit to teach, measures every doctrine and every custom against it, and comes to each reading ready to do what it says, since the word is given to be lived.