Start With the Basics

I lived in Wisconsin for four years, and in that time I learned a lot about one of the most storied franchises in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers. Aside from their 4 Super Bowl victories, the team had also won 11 more NFL championships before the Super Bowl even existed, giving Green Bay the name “Title Town.” There have been numerous players over the years that have become synonymous with the Packers, but one name in particular cast the deepest shadow over the team and its history. That is the one and only Vince Lombardi. 

From 1959 to 1967, Lombardi walked the sidelines of every Packers game. Before he won championships or had the Super Bowl Trophy named after him, Lombardi and the Packers were coming off a 4th quarter, blown lead in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. That summer, during training camp, Vince met with all 38 players of the team to get them ready for the ’61 season. The players were elite athletes. They were ready to get into the playbook and start scheming out the season. You can imagine their shock when Lombardi looked at the team and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” The next few weeks, he worked on the fundamentals of the sport with his team and went on to be NFL champions that season. Over the next 7 years, they went on to win 5 NFL championships and were the winners of the first two Super Bowls. In order for all of that to happen, they first needed to get back to the basics. 

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:12–14

Over the last 50 years or so, we have seen a decline in Biblical literacy. In other words, people just don’t know scripture like they used to. A Gallup poll from 2022 shows that a record-low 20% of Americans believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. That’s down from 24% in 2017 and less than half of what it was in 1980 and 1984. On the flip side, 29% of Americans believe the Bible to be "fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” In other words, we have more people in America thinking that the Bible is a fictitious storybook than we have people who truly believe it’s God’s Word. It’s no wonder Biblical literacy is down. Why would you waste time reading when you don’t believe what you’re reading? But what about the people that believe the Bible is God’s inherent Word, yet still don’t read it, much less memorize it?

The Hebrew writer could be talking about us today. As advanced a society as we are, we should have a greater understanding of God’s Word and have large quantities stored up in our brains. We have so many tools at our disposal, but we don’t really take advantage of those tools. We should be able to dip into the mature, spiritual food of the Bible, but because we’ve stunted our own growth, we need to get back to the basics. We need to devour the basic teachings of the Gospel, then move forward.

I’m going to give you 10 verses to memorize. They’re some of the basic verses that many of us have learned as children but still carry so much weight. Gentlemen and Ladies, these are memory verses….

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5–6

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:1–2

…but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19–20

Take the time over the next week or two and commit these verses to memory. Then memorize more. Move past the spiritual milk as you grow and seek the more mature things of the Bible. Just like the Green Bay Packers had to get back to the basics of football to find a breakthrough and become champions, we need to remember the basics of scripture and commit them to memory. God wants us to be champions as well.