Why We Study God’s Word by Tim Parkinson
Having been a saved, Holy Ghost filled, Bible believing Christian for over 35 years, I have a different view of the Holy Scriptures than someone who has been saved a few years.
Why is that? I’ve learned to love the backstory.
I estimate that I have read the entire Bible through at least a dozen times in those 35 years. I don’t always read it cover to cover, sometimes I park in a book (for different reasons) for months.
Throughout the years, I’ve realized that there’s a difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible. People can read the Bible and pick and choose what they want to believe or which parts they want to ignore. Different parts of the Bible make everyone uncomfortable at some point.
Pick a subject that you like to think about. Love, faithfulness, truth, forgiveness, winning, life after death, having a personal relationship with God. You’ll find all these subjects covered in both Old and New Testaments. But you’ll also find sin, murder, treason, sex including homosexuality, incest, rape, and suffering, abandonment, greed, the devil and demons and eternal judgement including damnation.
If we truly believe the Bible is God’s words to humanity, we cannot pick and choose what we will read or won’t read, what we’ll study or what we won’t, simply because throughout the Bible God is speaking to us, His children, personally for our own good and our spiritual growth.
I’m sure that many of you can already quote scriptures confirming what I’m saying. A number of years ago, I learned that God’s word is alive life giving. It’s food & drink to our bodies, minds and emotions. It can turn a bad situation into an overcoming triumph just by us trusting in it.
One of the few significant things that I have done in my life is that I have loved God’s word all these years and I am a better person for having read and studied it.
Let’s study God’s word now and see if learn something new in John 9:1-5.
Joh 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
- The disciples knew that all mortal flesh has sinful tendencies.
- They wondered if sin happens before birth.
- They knew that sin can cause physical handicaps. They knew parental sin can introduce problems to their children.
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
- Jesus knows about peoples spiritual condition just by being near to them.
- He also knows about each person’s past, present and future.
- We can know that a person’s present condition doesn’t have to be permanent. God works to restore or renew mankind’s ailments.
Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
- Jesus was on the earth revealing and doing God’s will.
- He draws a parallel between the world and God’s kingdom.
- Everyone walks in darkness without Jesus .
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
- We, like Jesus, being God’s children, are to bring light into this dark world.
- Our position requires us realizing this purpose for our being here. We need to accept our calling and declare it before it happens in our lives.
Studying God’s word is not hard work. It’s simply taking the time to read, consider and draw conclusions, which God, in time, will confirm to you. This personal confirmation is where God’s guidance for our lives comes from. Faith is imparted with the revelation of God’s word in our spirits.
God doesn’t always give revelation instantly. Sometimes we need to read things repeatedly, before some revelation is imparted to us. God is patient with us. He gives us the revelation that we can handle.
Receiving revelation from God’s word doesn’t mean we’re supposed to tell everyone what God revealed to us. We need to learn to be taught by God, to apply the revelation to our own lives and wait to see God produce the results. At that point, we then have a testimony of God’s faithfulness to His word and we can then use His word like a sword (of the Spirit) when needed.
It’s not wrong to share your revelations with others after first receiving them. Believers can be a blessing to one another and growing spiritually by discussing God’s word. This can be a great help to people’s faith, since faith comes by hearing God’s word.
We don’t need to argue over personal revelations or doctrines, doing so causes confusion and separates believers. This is how denominations or sects are formed. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
God wants us to be in unity, so that is want we should want. When people try to prove they’re “right” concerning scripture, it can often get into a mental or soulish area, which hinders our personal instruction by God’s Spirit. No matter who is “right” or “not right”, all discussing of God’s word should be done to edification of one another.
God’s word has enough power to confirm itself, so there’s no point trying to intellectually “prove it” to anyone. God’s word glorifies God and His nature, not the spirituality or intelligence of who’s speaking it. Let people say what they will, and should you disagree, try to concentrate on walking in unity with them concerning what you do agree on.
If something someone says is unscriptural, you can state what God’s word says without attacking or making personal comments about them being “wrong”. You will need to know God’s word before attempting to “correct” someone. Let God’s word do the work to correct or teach someone, as you concentrate on loving and edifying them.
Shall we study more of God’s word right now, or should we think some more about what we’ve learned from these 5 verses?
In any learning, we can go to a place of higher learning, but it’s a waste of time, if it’s a mental exercise without any “proof by experience”. It’s learning that is easily forgotten or “stolen from us”. So let’s concentrate on being a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
A good attitude for us to take to be a good student of God’s word was expressed by our Lord Jesus in the book of Matthew.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
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