“All Scripture is breathed out by God,” Paul famously wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is not a human product infused with divinity; it’s a divine gift produced through human instrumentality. Its every book, chapter, sentence, and syllable was originally given by God’s inspiration.
There is no other book that perfectly stands up to the challenges of every day and every age and to the questions that confront life itself. It is living and it is active (Hebrews 4:12). It is not sufficient, then, simply to affirm that the words in your Bible are without error; you and I also need to remember that those words are essential. If you want to understand yourself, your times, and your world, you will need to read His word.
At this time of year, in blogs and from pulpits, there will be plenty of exhortations to do just that through 2022: to read God’s word each day. There will be many suggestions about which reading plan to employ or which devotional resource to use. My encouragement to you is therefore not only to read the word, but to avoid two pitfalls as you do so that you don’t read the Scriptures every day this year to no purpose or profit whatsoever.
One holiday, our family decided that we were going to become a jigsaw family. We set up a table, sourced the most enormous jigsaw puzzle that we could find, and laid out all its pieces. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm soon proved unequal to the task. From time to time, one of us would walk up to the table, pick up a few pieces, fail to put them together—and then give up and walk away.
It is entirely possible to study the Bible as if we are picking up bits and pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, failing to put them together, and never seeing the magnificent picture in front of us. We might be meticulous in our Bible study and yet all the time fail to see the Messiah about whom we are reading. To such people, Jesus offers challenging words: “You do not have [God’s] word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent” (John 5:38).
If you want to understand yourself, your times, and your world, you will need to read His word.
“There is no life in the Scriptures themselves,” wrote the twentieth-century preacher G. Campbell Morgan in The Gospel According to John, but “if we follow where they lead, they will bring us to Him.” So, he concluded “we find life, not in the Scriptures, but in Him through them.”[1] The Spirit of God brings God’s word to people so that they might meet and discover the Son of God.
Beware, then, of carrying around pieces of the Bible in your mind without putting them together and then standing back to see the beautiful picture of Jesus, arms outstretched, ready to save those who will come to Him in repentance and faith. Be sure to avoid the pitfall of knowing a lot about the word without ever knowing the Word-become-flesh. Come to God’s word each day expecting to encounter Jesus as His Spirit works through His word.
The book of James contains this famous challenge: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). If we are to know and enjoy God’s power at work within us, we must take what we hear in the Scriptures and put it into practice. We should never fall into the trap of thinking that attending, paying attention, and listening carefully are enough. We must be “doers … and not hearers only.”
Come to God’s word each day expecting to encounter Jesus as His Spirit works through His word.
What a great sadness it is when churches become like dusty old libraries, filled with so many lives that are like volumes of truth just sitting there, never used. The temptation as we become increasingly aware of the truth is just to sit and think about it without ever taking action. James puts that kind of life in stark terms: it is to deceive yourself. No—a church is to be a gallery of living experience, of lives that are markedly different because they are not merely hearing, but doing.
Determine that in 2022 you will not be a hearer only, and so deceive yourself into thinking you are a growing Christian when in fact you are a shriveling one. Resolve to be a doer of the word as you see Christ in His word—for that way true blessing lies.
This article is adapted from portions of Truth For Life: 365 Daily Devotions by Alistair Begg. Each day includes prompts to apply what you’ve read, a related Bible text to enjoy, and a plan for reading through the whole of the Scriptures in a year. The hardback cover and ribbon marker make this a wonderful gift.
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio and the Bible teacher at Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world. He graduated from theological college in London and served two churches in Scotland before moving to Ohio. He is married to Susan, and they have three grown children.
