Daily Encouragementنموونە

This is a warning that a diligent study of Scripture, based on a mistaken attitude towards it, can lead to disastrous results. Our Lord’s listeners were meticulous students of the letter of Scripture, yet they rejected the Christ about whom it testified. They held “the oracles of God” in their hands, but his word did not dwell in their hearts.

We too must beware of the study that does no further than the letter. Our study may be painstaking and yet purely academic. The very paraphernalia of Bible study can keep us from hearing the true word. “Some forms of Bible study,” said Spurgeon, “are attempts to satisfy soul-hunger by eating the dishes instead of the dinner.” A. W. Tozer writes in the same vein: “Be a Bible meditator . . . Put away questions and answers and the filling in of blank lines about Noah. Put all that cheap trash away and take a Bible, open it, get on your knees and say, “Father, here I am. Begin to teach me.”

We must be Bible-believers but not Bible-worshippers - not even of the King James version! The supreme function of Scripture is to lead us to Christ. “A vast knowledge of the Bible will not make up for a little knowledge of the Lord,” said Watchman Nee.