Revelation about how much the church has theologized and doctrineized scripture started to hit me yesterday, but I had trouble keeping it almost immediately because it was just very huge.
It's like, we worship a doctrine and not Jesus. We worship a verse, and not Jesus.
When the Bible says to us Christ is the word made flesh, this was never ever intended by God that men could then just read the Bible, and in that reading of scripture have relationship with God.
The relationship with God can't happen by scripture. Because God is not a dusty book. God is not exactly John 3:16. God is the revelation of John 3:16, given to us by the Holy Spirit, and lived out subsequently in our life James 1:23-24.
A Christian can never then hang their hat on any verse, or series of verses... the reason being the only place to rest is Christ... and this idea is not vain in that we say it without results, rather it is actual trust in him and trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. Without that guidance of the Holy Spirit, we do not know truth, even should we read the Bible our whole lives.
And the chapters and line numbers, while good, they can also enable us to build us a series of verses to follow rather than Jesus. Man, I want to follow Jesus, not my theology!