What's wrong with doing a Bible study each day by radio? If a teacher has scripture to back up what he teaches can the Holy Spirit not use him to teach me? I'm not really into venturing out on my own. Is that wrong in your opinion?
Is it wrong to follow a radio Bible study and learn from it? Of course not. Is it wrong for it to replace a personal and individual Bible study? Yes. Here’s why:
God didn’t call us to follow men, but to follow him. Anyone who teaches God’s word correctly is blessed and can be used by the Holy Spirit to encourage believers and convict non-believers, but ultimately no teaching of man can replace God’s personal revelation of himself in the life of the believer. The Bible is God’s revelation to man, and to know God is to know his word. Man is fallible, God’s word is infallible. Men all over the world are teaching scripture passionately, but not all of them are doing so accurately. Take the example of the Romans 12 passage that I commented on earlier. It can be taught by a very passionate person who misinterprets it, and I can feel something in me, but that doesn’t mean that I have understood God’s word or grown closer to him. The Bible is the very core of the Christian life; it’s how we know God. The greatest desire of the Christian should be to know God intimately and personally, this requires an intimate and personal experience of his word.
Let me give you another example. Imagine that you are a parent whose son is a soldier in a foreign country and you haven’t seen him in two years. You’re disconnected from him completely except through the letters he writes you. As a parent your greatest desire is to know everything about him that you possibly can. Would it be ok if all of his letters were sent to me and I told you what I thought they said? Even if I was accurately conveying what they say, would it be sufficient for you to not study them yourself? I think we would all want to read them firsthand, how much more should we desire to study and ponder the word of the sovereign creator God of the universe who has given his life to call us his children.
But unless I find myself guilty of the same issue, let me show you how it is addressed in Scripture. The evidence overwhelmingly speaks for itself.
1. We should study the Bible because God command us to do so.
You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 11:18-20)
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
2. Direct interaction with the word of God is the foundation of Christian existence.
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. (Psalm 119:92-93)
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6)
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward (Psalm 19:7-11)
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17)
These verses are only a sampling of the verses that talk about the importance of the word of God in the life of the believer. A desire to study the word of God is so central to what it means to be a Christian that I would doubt the salvation of someone who claimed to be a Christ follower but shows no desire for his Word.
Again, we are taught by this passage [John 5:39-40], that if we wish to obtain the knowledge of Christ, we must seek it from the Scriptures; for they who imagine whatever they choose concerning Christ will ultimately have nothing of him but a shadowy phantom. First, then, we ought to believe that Christ cannot be properly known in any other way than from the Scriptures; and if it be so, it follows that we ought to read the Scriptures with the express design of finding Christ in them. Whoever shall turn aside from this object, though he may weary himself throughout his whole life in learning, will never attain the knowledge of the truth; for what wisdom can we have without the wisdom of God? Next, as we are commanded to seek Christ in the Scriptures, so he declares in this passage that our labors shall not be fruitless; for the Father testifies in them concerning his Son in such a manner that He will manifest him to us beyond all doubt. But what hinders the greater part of men from profiting is, that they give to the subject nothing more than a superficial and cursory glance. Yet it requires the utmost attention, and, therefore, Christ enjoins us to search diligently for this hidden treasure. -John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John (1563).
No comments:
Post a Comment