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The Richness of Bible Study

The importance of Bible study cannot be stressed enough. We are given a relationship with the Almighty, but intimate communion with him through his Word provides the necessary opportunity for his Holy Spirit to inform and mold our hearts. The richness of our faith will not be delved into apart from Bible study. Reading is good, study is better. One can read through a passage and get a warm fuzzy feeling for having “entered into God’s word” or one can study and chew on the Word, sucking the marrow from it. The more time I spend investigating the Bible, the more I realize just how deep and wonderful it is. It’s not that there is some hidden mystical meaning that only the chosen few who dwell in ivory towers can discern, but there is richness that is not tapped by our western mind which is inclined toward immediate gratification. It is a richness that requires us to take pause and meditate; that is only discovered through carefully searching the meaning of it and its applying it to our lives.

Jesus said, “Man cannot live on bread alone, but on the very word of God.” There is a part of us that must have God’s word in order to live. His word brings life, not just eternal but right now. True Bible study (where one investigates, internalizes, and lives out the Word) salts the mind and heart so that it is preserved and does not become enslaved again as it once was before salvation. It sparks to life and feeds those parts of us that God intended to flourish; those parts of us which bring life to the world around us.

Faith apart from Bible study is not dead, but is greatly handicapped. It becomes very hard to know the freedom and life that Jesus spoke of apart from it. Growth stops and our soul atrophies. For the Christian to mature and more fully grasp the life Jesus Christ spoke of, he cannot divorce Bible study from his life. It must be integrated into daily life so that the principles and truths gleaned from it can affect his whole life. Bible study is not an end, but a mean – a truly critical mean.

Submitted by Alex Murphy