We all know that reading the Bible is essential. But why? What is unique about the Bible that demands we read it? And how should we approach it? 2 Tim 3:16-17 helps us answer these questions by offering two foundational beliefs about the Bible.
1. The Bible contains nothing less than the inspired words of the living God.Read through the litany of the perfections of God’s word in Psa 19:7-11. That is what we’re taking up every time we open our Bibles.
If you don’t believe that the Bible is inspired, you will not long submit to it, because you won’t believe in its authority over your life. You will eventually default to your flesh, picking and choosing which parts to obey and which to not. And, you will minimize certain teachings that don’t agree with your deep-down desires.
You’ll listen to other authorities – the media or your friends. And those authorities will only confirm what you really want to submit to – your own authority.
That’s the constant battle: our self-idolatry vs. Christ’s lordship…wanting self-rule vs. humbling ourselves under God’s mighty hand.
But this is what the Bible attests about itself, what God attests about the Bible: it contains the very words from the mouth of God. Everything hinges on this.
2. We need the Bible everyday for everything. The second half of v. 16 says, without Scripture you cannot teach profitably (you’ll be teaching mere human wisdom, opinions, and preferences), you won’t be reproved or corrected (you’ll be pride and blind to your own sins!), and you won’t grow in righteousness (the fruit of the Spirit will be stymied in your life).
Read through this list: it demands that we get the Bible in us everyday because everything depends on it.
It’s the food that sustains us (Deut 8:3). Peter says in 1 Pet 2:2 that like babies, we must long for the pure milk of the word (the gospel in that context) so that we can grow in our salvation. No milk, dead baby. No word, functionally dead Christian (not that you lose your salvation, but you’re stunted in your growth).
So, if you don’t take in the Word regularly, you won’t be equipped – thoroughly geared up – for every good work (2 Tim 3:17), the good works God prepared beforehand so that we might live them out (Eph 2:10). We can’t fight temptation, resist the devil, grow in Christlikeness, and serve others unless we wield the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Eph 6:17).
And handling this sword doesn’t take a degree or locking yourself up in a room; it takes faith. And thankfully, the word of God itself produces faith (Rom 10:17). So, as you read it, it creates and nurtures faith. And faith energizes our efforts to continue in the Word.
So, let’s take up and read our Bibles, believing that our Father has spoken to us and that it will change our lives.
