The Importance Of Studying The Bible
Have you ever been bored while reading the Bible? Have you dozed off when reading a passage? Well, we have all been there. When we read the Bible because we are forced by our parents, we often don’t read to understand the intention and characteristics of God in each story. In every story, God reveals His characteristics and His goodness to His people. The Bible is not just about the rules. There is so much more. There is so much history, poetry, prophecy and it also teaches us simple ways on how to live a life, being guided by the Holy Spirit, which was freely given to us. Read more about the importance of the Holy Spirit here - Let's Learn The Basics
The Bible is not just a “book of rules.”
If you do things only to escape hell, you tend to only follow rules that make you seem like the “perfect Christian,” which make you appear to be holy only on the outside. Those rules will sometimes distract you from having a relationship with God. Following only the rules, all the time, and not having a personal relationship with God, will make you ask the infamous question, “I’m doing all the right things as a Christian, then why are bad things happening to me?” When you don’t have a strong relationship with Christ, don’t pray or spend time with God, then any little obstacle can shake you. It’ll feel as though your world has turned upside-down. Only when you have a relationship with God and know the Bible, the Holy Spirit in you will strengthen you when you are weak by reminding of the scripture and reassure you that God is always with you during times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). He will fight your battles.
Instead of looking at the Bible as a book of rules, look at it as a book of love. God has shown His love and mercy to His people time and time again. He takes the weak and makes them strong. He empowers them with His goodness and mercy. We have a God, who we can have a relationship with. He created us to have a relationship with Him. We can talk to Him every day, share our worries and praise Him for His goodness in our lives. He will carry our burdens and help us in overcoming our struggles (Psalm 55:22). When we have this kind of a relationship with Christ, we will do what He likes and what pleases Him. We will live according to His will.
Let’s look at it this way. When your friend tells you to not do something, you don’t do it out of respect for them and the fact that they simply told you not to do it. You don’t want to disappoint them. You still want to maintain your strong bond with them. In the same way, when you have a relationship with Jesus, you do things to please Him. You follow the commands in the Bible, which are there to protect you, in order to be pleasing in God’s eyes. You avoid doing sin to not disappoint God. That should be your goal. When you are pleasing to Him, He’ll bless you in all aspects. Even when you go through hard times, you’ll have the security that God will watch out for you and fight for you (Exo 14:14). You don’t have to go through the battles alone (Deu 4:31).
Look at the Bible in a positive light. The Bible is full of love and God’s mercies. Use scripture to spread God’s love. Don’t just use it to judge someone’s sin. Many times we see people doing things that don’t reflect Christ. Our immediate response is to judge them. Nowadays, people have a new term for judgment, “Bro, I’m not judging. I’m just correcting”, “The Bible says we can judge with right judgment”, ”If we don’t correct them, how will they know their sin?” When we judge them or “correct them,” it adds more tension and they stray away from the love of God. Everyone needs love. Show them God’s love through your life and actions. That’s all you need to do. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom 5:8). Show them the same love that God showed you when you were desperate and lost. When they experience God’s love through you, they will want to know more about the God you represent. When they accept Jesus as their personal savior, because of the example of God’s love through your life, they will experience His love directly through reading the Bible and experiencing His goodness in their lives. Then, whenever they do sin, the Holy Spirit will convict them (John 16:8) and they in-turn will live a life pleasing to Christ.
Common Misconceptions
We can judge with the right judgment as Jesus says in John 7:24, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
By looking at this verse alone, people conclude that we can judge others if we are right. That is not the case! In the previous verses in the chapter, Jesus goes to Galilee instead of Judea because the leaders were trying to kill him, as he healed a man on the Sabbath. So, Jesus says in the verses before v.24, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually, it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?” Then He says, judge with right judgment. By right judgment, He doesn’t necessarily give us the right to judge but he means, know the intention behind the story before coming to the wrong conclusion or judgment.
We shouldn’t judge people because Jesus says in Matthew 7:5, “First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” No one is perfect, according to Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are only justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (v.24). You are only righteous because of the grace of God, not by your own will. To honor this gift, be kind to others and show God’s love because He loves you and has saved you, even when you didn’t deserve it.
The Bible is out of date because the laws that are commanded only apply to the people of Jewish culture.
The rules given to the Jews by God that apply in different areas of life. There were civil, traditional (cultural), and moral laws. Many of the laws given to the Jews in the book of Leviticus seem strange to us today, such as the warning against touching an unclean animal. While helpful to the Jews (both medically and spiritually), these laws do not apply universally.
Commenting on Leviticus 11-15, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states: “In general it can be said that the laws protected Israel from bad diet, dangerous vermin, and communicable diseases. Only in recent days have better laws of health been possible with the advance of medicine. These were rule-of-thumb laws that God gave in his wisdom to a people who could not know the reason for the provision…
“The Hebrew was not only to avoid eating unclean animals; he was not to touch their dead carcasses. Thus the laws automatically helped control vermin. Common unclean animals would be spiders, flies, bugs, rats, and mice. A dead rat in a Hebrew house was not overlooked. It was carefully taken out and buried. In an effort to avoid such problems, the Hebrew housewife would normally keep a clean house…
“It is, of course, true that some cultures have adopted similar rules out of sad experience. The [Old Testament] did not get its taboos from surrounding cultures, but some other cultures in later times adopted by experience some of these taboos…The laws were wonderfully fashioned by God for the general health of the nation” (R. Laird Harris, Vol. 2, 1990, p. 569).
The civil and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were specifically repealed in the New Testament (Mark 7:19; John 8:1-10; Acts 10:12-15; Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:1-5; Colossians 2:11-16; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; Hebrews 7:11-19, 26-28; 10:3-10).
Moral laws were not repealed, but certain harsh earthly penalties for them are not in force in the same way since Jesus’ gospel of grace. Jesus’ example, such as toward the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11, was not to condemn the transgressor to harsh punishment as the culture would have demanded (in this case being stoned to death), but to show mercy and insist that she leave her life of sin. He did this as an example of what we ought to do, being a follower of Christ. He showed compassion to the woman, no matter what she did, showcased how we ought to love all people, as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). All of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament (with the possible exception of the Sabbath commandment). So it is important to follow the commandants, just as Jesus told us to (Matthew 5:17; Matthew 19:17-19).
So in order to fully understand the Bible, you must study it. Find a Bible plan online, a Bible devotion book or simply research on reliable sources online, to add more details about the factors that influenced the events that happened in the Bible. This will help you understand the scriptures in much more detail and help you understand the characteristics of God. He will become more real to you. Through your understanding of the word and of God, the Holy Spirit will remind you about His goodness, as you grow in Him each day.
God is not scary. He is not somewhere far away in the clouds. He is accessible to us through the Holy Spirit. You know how your best friend is only one call away, the difference with God is, He is always in your heart through the Holy Spirit. Just say a simple, “God, I need you,” and He’s right there to help you. His presence will be so real in your life just like how He was real to David, Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Elijah and so many others in the Bible.
So, remember to study the Bible and understand it’s truths. Then, no matter what obstacle comes your way, you will be able to overcome it with the help of the Holy Spirit, strengthening you spiritually and emotionally. He will give you the courage to be victorious in all that you do. There is so much truth in the Bible. Drama, romance, war, horror, death, resurrection, miracles, and wonders, that you can’t just imagine. And it’s all real! Better start reading!