Among other things, WLC 157 counsels us to read the Bible with "self-denial." This counsel is widely ignored in contemporary evangelical Bible reading/preaching/teaching. One reason for this, I think, is that this counsel is widely misunderstood.
This counsel to read with an aim toward self-denial is widely ignored insofar as so much "gospel-centered" reading/preaching/teaching tends to culminate in a kind of baptized Rogerian self-regard (Powlison): "Don't worry; Jesus has got you covered." "Whew! I feel so much better."
We tend to ignore the counsel to read with self-denial due to our fallen state, i.e., b/c the self is curved in on itself. But we also ignore this counsel b/c we misunderstand it. Reading with self-denial is not simply about conversion from self-centeredness to God-centeredness.
Reading with self-denial is about a reorientation of the self, not about the abolition of the self. The fallen self assumes a "zero-sum game" when it comes to God, self, and neighbor: God, world, and neighbor must orbit around me or I lose.
Reading with self-denial is about reading with a view to the mortification of this view of the self. But it is also about reading with a view to the vivification of a different, non-competitive view of the self, one that refuses to play the "zero-sum game" of the fallen self.
God-centered biblical interpretation awakens us to a non-competitive view of God, self, and neighbor wherein we come to see God not only as supreme good and center of all things, but wherein we also see God as maker, redeemer, and perfecter of the self in relation to the neighbor
Reading with self-denial is reading w/ a view to the death, not of the self per se, but of the "self-centered self," and w/ a view to the resurrection of the "God-centered self" wherein the self finds its true meaning/fulfillment in rightly ordered relations to God and neighbor.
Reading with self-denial is thus at once the most God-honoring and humane kind of reading we can pursue. For further reading, see Augustine, On Christian Teaching.
