The Need and Value of Bible Study

You would hardly call a man a scientist whose only knowledge of a field consisted of having met Einstein at one time. Nor would you call a woman a seamstress who owned a sewing machine but never used it.
Yet too many “Christians” are people who have made a fleeting acquaintance with the Lord. Their religion is sort of like an ornament, even a useful one in a pinch. But is it enough?
To ignore God’s Word is a grave error. In fact, it is a serious symptom of approaching spiritual death. If a Christian does not regard God’s Word enough to want to know it more fully, it must follow that God’s will is not very important in his life.
A secondhand knowledge of the Bible is not enough. Simply listening to the Word being expounded on Sunday morning will not do. No parent likes to communicate with his child only by relaying messages through another person. Neither does God.
We need to know the Bible in order to know right from wrong.
We need to know the Bible in order to overcome Satan, for the Word is called – and rightly so – the sword of the Spirit. But how often we stand there, bravely grabbing the handle to the hilt, and find to our shame we are missing the blade! Disgraced, we face the evil one with our defenses down.
We need to learn to handle the Word so we will effectively be able to teach a lost world about an Almighty, risen Lord.
Our excuses for not reading the Word are numerous and varied.
There is time for pleasure, but no time for Bible reading. There is time for eating, for sleeping, for visiting, for doing our work, for pursuing our hobbies, for going to town, but not for reading the Bible. We have time for the newspaper, but the Bible is another matter.
If your Christian life should be measured by what you know of, or how much you read the Bible, how would you rate?
Our society in our time is privileged above all others in having the Bible within easy reach. We all can read. We, in our country, have the freedom to do so. Not to take advantage of these privileges is to deny God the right-of-way in our lives.

Guidelines to Christian Living