By Dennis Smith
God created you with the ability to think. With that ability comes the responsibility to reason (Isa. 1:18). We are accountable for the things that we know (Hos. 4:6).
A time did exist in which one may not have had to study. Certain men were told what to say by God (Matt. 10:18-19). The apostles had the benefit of the Holy Spirit guiding them into all truth (John 14:26). The reader today can know what it was that the Holy Spirit told those men (John 16:13).
Certainly, no serious reader of the Bible can deny the role the Holy Spirit had in directly teaching through certain men in the days of the early church before the Holy Scriptures were written down. By that same token, even in those days not everyone had the gift of knowledge. Even in those days serious disciples applied themselves to study. While the New Testament was not completely written and compiled in those days, there still remained the Old Testament. It was those Old Testament Scriptures that prophesied of the coming Christ and of the kingdom that He would establish (Acts 17:11). Paul had written of a day in which the miraculous gifts would not be necessary (cf. 1 Cor. 12-14). The “perfect” he wrote of is the New Testament recorded in its entirety. We now have that, and so now the task falls upon us to read, study, and know.
Even if we had miraculous knowledge today, it would not bring to us knowledge that we do not already possess (Gal. 1:8). The truth will always be the truth. It does not vary from person to person, nor shall it deviate from what it has always been. Should anyone claim to have some divine revelation that differs from what the Holy Spirit had penned long ago, let that man be accursed.
The Bible is a book worth knowing. It contains all the revelation that man needs today (2 Tim. 3:16). It reveals a great deal about this present life (Proverbs and Matthew 5-7 comes to mind). Most importantly, it reveals the life which is to come (Peter and Paul write of the hope of heaven at times, but it is John, I think, who more beautifully paints the picture for us). These are the words of life (John 6:68; Acts 5:20).
What should be our motivation to study? It should not be for the sake of public controversy. Nor should we study to have a personal advantage over others. The point of studying is not even to be recognized by man. We study to be approved before God (2 Tim. 2:15-19).
When next I write to you, I hope to explain more about this book that we are to study. The Bible is not one work in and of itself, but rather a collection of sixty-six books. Those books are divided into two main divisions: those of the Old Testament and those of the New Testament. Even among those two divisions are many more groups (for example, the Old Testament is divided as the law, the prophets, and the psalms [Luke 24:44]). I leave you with a question that I hope to answer next week. What law is it that we are under today, and why?