Why should we read the Bible?

I am often asked questions about the Bible. Many times I will simply answer with “read the Bible, the answer is there.”

Reading and understanding the Bible is much like playing chess. A person can be taught to play chess in just a few minutes.

Each chess piece can only be moved in certain ways; however, just knowing the chess moves does not mean a person is an expert chess player. The Bible is much the same way.

Some people read the Bible to only find it is a jumble of words that make no sense to them. If you don’t read the Bible you will never know what it says, whether you understand it or not. As you gain the basic understanding of the Bible, the more complex concepts of the text will become known, just as the more a person plays chess the better at the game he will become.

Many attend worship services every time the doors are open. They listen intently wanting the information, but cannot understand the Bible unless it is spoon-feed to them by the clergy conducting the service. I call these people churchians. Sadly, there seems to be a growing number of clergy who are churchians as well. These clergy are damaging the churches of today and leading congregations astray. This is described in 1 Corinthians 13:1: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Charity is the original text meaning love, as in the love of God and the truth of the Bible. How does a person identify those in the clergy who lack the charity of the Bible and the truths contained therein?

They know their Bible, because they read it. They know when that clergyman is speaking with the sounding of brass and the tinkling cymbal. At the time the Bible was written it was common for a person worshiping pagan gods to use bells and cymbals. In other words, it made them feel good without doing any good. In short, a person needs to know what the Bible says for himself to discern the truth of its words.

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction,” it says in 2 Peter 2:1-2. “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

How are people to know if they are being taught is the truth? At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, they must read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible.

Not being born again will play a major part in understanding the Bible. This is addressed in John 3:3 when Jesus tells Nicodemus that a person must born again. To be born again means very simply that a person changes. The old person — their desires, goals, ideas and values — die. They must be taught everything to match what the Bible describes. 1 Peter 1:23 describes this person as being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Some teach that the Bible or its message should be updated to match society’s new problems. I agree that to some extent society has changed, but the God has not. The Bible clarifies how much God or his word needs to be changed to match today’s world. The Bible tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. God’s view of changing the Bible is addressed in Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19.

The single best reason for reading the Bible is discussed in Proverbs 2:1-6. In these few verses the Bible lays out that the only true source of understanding God is in reading and understanding the Bible. I have many books on my bookshelf that I have read, but the single most important book, the book I read and believe word for word, is the Bible.

When reading the Bible, a person soon discovers that literacy was very important. How important is reading and living by the Bible? According to the Bible (Ecclesiastes 12:11), the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Time and again reading the Bible is highlighted in the Bible. “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,” it says in 1 Timothy 4:13.

Here is a news flash for some people: Satan knows the Bible verse for verse. He can quote it word for word exactly as it is written in any language. Does he understand and abide by the Bible? The answer to that question is a resounding no. Satan’s best friend is a dusty, new-looking, unopened, unread Bible that has sat on a person’s bookshelf for years. His biggest fear is a person with a worn-down, tattered Bible a person is reading.

I leave you with this thought; how much wear does your Bible have? Could it stand a little more wear? When was the last time it was opened and read? Is it only opened on Sunday? There will be plenty of time to read it when you reach your eternal home, wherever that is.

Mike Blodgett is chaplain for Lighthouse Chapel. Contact him at lighthouse_chapelak@yahoo.com.

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