How
to read the Bible
By
Nick Bibile
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker
who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 3:15 )
Today we can see the state of the church and it is a pathetic
picture as the church has gone astray from the sound doctrine. In reality
Almost all Christians have a Bible at home. Some
of your Bibles look neatly bound and have beautiful covers, does not look
worn out, looks still new. And some of you keep the Bible in a safe place
at home and only on Sundays you open the Bible. There is no reading the
precious word of God, do not search the scriptures and study and then
circumstances arise when you go through a trial or some hardship, people
get paranoid, emotionally hurt, get angry as they cannot find the scriptures
for their comfort. People are not reading their Bibles as they come only
on Sunday mornings to hear the word of God.
First let us see why some read the Bible and still they live worldly
lives, there is no sanctification, holiness or Christ like behavior.
· Many read
the Bible as a tradition. I did my part to God by reading and praying,
and now I am free from the rest of the day to do my own business. God is
not looking for a sacrifice, he is looking for obedience. If you have
read the Bible and did not understand what it meant, in short you just wasted
your time. It becomes a superstition. We condemn the early Roman
Catholic Church as the priest read the Bible to the people in Latin language
and the people were kept in darkness. It was more like a superstition and
a sacrifice.
· Some read
the Bible as an accomplishment. I have read the whole Bible; I have done
something that people do not do. It is an experience a past event and it
is history. I have done it, in my life.
· Some not
only read the Bible but study it and get puffed up what they have learned as
breed pride for their own destruction.
· Some study,
as they have to teach others. I am studying, as I have to teach a Bible
study. It becomes a work and not a joy. They teach others what to
do and they do not do, leaves a bad example, as they do not become sanctified
before the Lord.
· Some read
the Bible to Critic God, with a critical eye to find faults.
· Some read
only their favorite parts of the Bible. Some like
only the end times like the rapture, the anti Christ, some like only the
election. Their body grows only in one part, looks abnormal.
Need to grow in all aspects knowing the whole council of God.
READING THE BIBLE WITH UNDERSTANDING.
It is the same with the person who read the Bible daily and not
understanding. It is like a bird flying over the land and not finding a
rest and nesting. There is a thing as praying in prayer. Praying from
your most interior part, not only from the mouth but from the soul, so in praising
in song that is inward intense devotion, so in fasting that is inward fasting,
and so with reading the word, not as a mechanical type reading which does not
profit anything but interior reading, the soul reading.
Reading with clarity, Nehemiah 8:8.
Have you not read? Mat. 12:3-5; 19:4; 21:16; 21:42; 22:31.
Jesus is speaking to the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes and the
Pharisees studied the word of God daily, they knew how many times such a word
is written, and they were the intense readers of the word. They were
prideful of their knowledge in the word as they were the masters in the
word. Our Lord met them on their own court, their own camp as he
said to them, “Have you not read”? Your eyes have gone over the letters
and counted the letters, know the position of each letters but you have not
read because you did not understand.
It is good to read a lot of books of great Biblical
authors, but the best food is the word of God. The truth is sweetest
where it breaks from the smitten Rock. Most people drink their water most
of the time from the tank, always depending on the sermons of the pastor and
reading Biblical books, but not finding the truth for themselves. It is
always best to drink from the well. Psalm 36:9; Psalm 119:16.
Make a serious effort to understand what you are reading.
Illumination of the mind
How can you love God if you do not have knowledge of God? We can kiss the
Bible and will have no love devotions to the contents of the Bible. We
can reverence the letters in the Bible and will not have true devotion to the
Lord. When you read the Bible, your motive is to know God, come closer to him,
become like our Lord Jesus. The high priest in the Old Testament before
he put the incense upon the brazen altar, he always lit the candlestick
first. It shows that the mind should be lighted before we can worship the
Lord. We need to have knowledge of God before we can love him, and
worship him. Filled with knowledge of God’s will,
Colossians 1:9–11.
Awakening the mind.
The Lord spoke to Moses from the burning bush and said, “Take off your sandals,
for the place you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)
Moses has passed this way many times always wearing his sandals, and now when
the Lord appeared it became sacred ground. In the same way like Moses we
come from our work or from the store or another activity from the world.
We cannot immediately study the Bible to see the heavenly mysteries. We
need to understand in the Bible is the Lord and we need like Moses took off his
sandals we need to take our worldly thoughts away as we are entering into the
heavenly thoughts. Just like the priest in the Old Testament washed his
feet before did his holy work in the temple we need to wash our mind, our eyes
with prayer before we enter into his holy word. We
are reading his holy word and we need to do it in holy fashion, as we are not
reading another newspaper, magazine or reading the fine poetry. This is
our spiritual meal. We need to pray before we partake our
spiritual meal so we can fully enjoy the contents and give glory to God.
Meditation.
There are shallow passages in the Bible, which is easy to
understand, it is like the sheep eating grass in a plain flat area. But some times there are deep valleys we have to go through and
these scriptures are difficult to understand. God put it purposely so we
will labor, pray, meditate for us to understand. When we come to these
difficult scripture we have to think. Our heavenly Father educates us for
heaven. There is no easy short cut to understand these difficult
scriptures, need to labor, meditate, there is pain involved and some of the
difficult scriptures are understood with much labor and pain. Like
grapes cannot yield wine until we press with our feet to get the juice
out. The olives must be put under a wheel and pressed again and again to
get the oil out. Sometimes when you open the shell of a peanut or a
cashew nut, we see the nut has been eaten by a worm. This worm has made a
hole with all his strength to get into the nut. Then he lives inside the shell
eating slowly the nut. In the same way we need to labor to understand the
deep truths of the Word. And the word of God is always most precious
when we live upon it. We need to labor to understand these truths; means
we need to get to our knees and cry out before God for direction, we must ask
the author of the book for understanding. Call upon the author himself;
call upon the Holy Spirit to unlock the secret mysteries, once you understand,
oh how sweet it can be to our souls. Psalm 119:25-28 1 Corinthians 2:10–11.
Do not neglect reading the historical
accounts of the Bible.
Read Matthew 12:1-4, see verses 3-4. This
was a historical event. If they read it carefully they would understand.
But many of us when it comes to history of the Bible we give less
priority. Beloved there are greater depths of spirituality in the
historical parts of the Bible and it become more precious to your soul.
The historical teachings come home to your soul. For example the Lord
went to history for us to understand the meaning of the brazen serpent.
What about reading Exodus, Leviticus Numbers. These books
have become very boring to some of us. All you find is the wilderness the
tabernacle, the furniture, bowls, boards, sockets, doors, knobs, scarlet,
linen, precious stones, candlesticks, etc., Why did God put them in the
Bible? Look for the inner meaning, do a thorough search. The best
treasure is found in the most closely locked up place. Do a thorough
search and unlock the meaning of these words and you will be blessed.
(Proverbs 2:1-6)
Jesus is the Word.
Read John 5:39. From Genesis to Revelation the center is Jesus Christ,
the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the proof the Bible. From every
little village in California there is a road to Los
Angeles. You who are in the island of Cebu, from every
little village in the island of Cebu there is a road to the
city of Cebu. In the same way from every page and text in the Bible
there is a road to Jesus Christ. Remember he is called the Word. And his
word is called life. John 6:63.
Read 1 John 1:1-3
Here we see how John’s purpose is that we may have true fellowship with the
Father and Jesus Christ. For us to have true fellowship with the Father
we need to know the Son. We need see him in every page of the
Bible. We need to know him personally, by looking upon him with our eyes,
seeing him in the scripture, and then he will be revealed to us, he becomes
part of our life. Reading the Bible will make you become like him, we
will love him and adore him, as John said, we have seen with our eyes and our
hands have handled concerning the Word of life.
Lastly but most importantly, the Bible should change your
lifestyle, if you read the Bible and lifestyle is not changed then the word of
God did not penetrate into your soul, because you read it like another worldly
book. Remember to pray every time you read and ask the Lord to change your
lifestyle and remember to memorize scriptures and use them in time of spiritual
battles of temptations.