William Tyndale's Attitude Toward the Scriptures vs. Eugene Petersen's

William TyndaleFirst man to translate and print an English Bible for which he was put to death by the enemies of

God.

Apostle vs. Apostate Eugene PetersenAuthor of “The Message” a new age paraphrase

of the Bible that corrupts its major doctrines.

I think it meet that every Christian man not only know it, by rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein evermore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily can read it too oft, or study it too well; for the more it is studied, the easier it is; the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is; and the more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein...

From Tyndale's Prologue to Romans

Well, why do people spend so much time studying the Bible? How much do you need to know? We invest all this time in understanding the text which has a separate life of it's own and we think we're being more pious and spiritual when we're doing it. But it's all to be lived. It was given to us so we could live it. But most Christians know far more of the Bible than they're living. They should be studying it less, not more. You just need enough to pay attention to God.(If Petersen is referring to “The Message” I couldn't agree more about reading it less..)

source: http://www.leaderu.com/marshill/mhr03/peter1.html