Charles Spurgeon once said, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” The Bible is God’s Word to us and we ought to consider it with soberness and care. Many people approach the Bible in a simplistic manner, citing random verses as reasons for its obsoleteness. I have briefly touched on the need to study the Bible as a whole in a previous post. Here I just want to share encouragement to those who are seeking to know God’s Word.
Do not expect to master the Bible in a day, or a month, or a year. Rather expect often to be puzzled by its contents. It is not all equally clear. Great men of God often feel like absolute novices when they read the Word. The apostle Peter said that there were some things hard to be understood in the epistles of Paul (2 Peter 3.16). I am glad he wrote those words because I have felt that often. So do not expect always to get an emotional charge or a feeling of quiet peace when you read the Bible. By the grace of God you may expect that to be a frequent experience, but often you will get no emotional response at all. Let the Word break over your heart and mind again and again as the years go by, and imperceptibly there will come great changes in your attitude and outlook and conduct. You will probably be the last to recognize these. Often you will feel very, very small, because increasingly the God of the Bible will become to you wonderfully great. So go on reading it until you can read no longer, and then you will not need the Bible anymore, because when your eyes close for the last time in death, and never again read the Word of God in Scripture you will open them to the Word of God in the flesh, that same Jesus of the Bible whom you have known for so long, standing before you to take you forever to His eternal home. (Geoffrey Thomas)
The Bible is not a magical book that brings about spiritual life simply by reading random segments. The Bible contains the truth about all of life. It contains the truth about God, the truth about mankind, the truth about sin, the truth about the problem of evil, the truth about life after death, the truth about Jesus, and on and on. For those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible can often seem archaic and irrelevant. With a little effort and some helpful resources, the main message of the Bible can be understood. There will be much more to come on the topic of the Bible in future posts. For now I leave you with another quote from Charles Spurgeon concerning the Bible: “I would rather speak five words out of this book than fifty thousand words of the philosophers.”
Reformed Hope 