Why Bible Study? Part II
One nippy October night on a hayride, I shared the story of Jesus’ love with a curly-headed first-grader. Her eyes lit up with understanding. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has every done for me!” The message of the Bible is simple enough for someone hearing it the first time to understand and believe it.
On the other hand, as a student in Bible college, I’d visit my professors in their studies surrounded by volumes written about the Bible. Books by men studying the Bible their whole lives without exhausting its depths.
On a scale from basic knowledge to rich understanding, people have been reading and enjoying the Bible for thousands of years, yet we’ll never “get” all of it in this life.
So can a child understand the Bible? Yes. Can I read it without any other books to help me? Yes. Could a person spend their whole life studying it and never get bored? Also yes. So is it helpful to go deeper than surface level?
I married a man who excelled at full time customer service by making people feel at home, like they’d known him their whole lives although they just met. As his wife, though, I know him much better. I see all the facets of his personality and know what makes him tick. The longer we are married, the more I’ll know him, too.
The Bible says it is alive. God speaks through its pages. So anyone who reads it can grasp some of its message and see its Author in the pages. But the more you read, the more you study, the more time you devote to God’s word, the deeper you’ll understand God himself.
But not automatically.
My husband loves the Green Bay Packers. One of their wide receivers, Jordy Nelson, happens to know my sister’s husband. Nate could read every article ever written about Nelson, follow him on Twitter and watch his every move on television, still missing that personal connection that Bill has. On the flip side, although Bill knows Nelson, since he’s not into football, there’s a lot he doesn’t know about him, either.
Understanding about God and walking with him go hand in hand. No matter how much I know about God with my head, if I don’t love and follow him, that knowledge means nothing. But nor do I want to stick with just a surface level relationship. I want to go deeper, so I’m digging into his word to discover more about him.