Five Behaviors of People Who Know Their Bible
There is no single secret to reading your Bible.
No hard and fast rules.
Get up in the morning, read your Bible, meditate on what you read…and pray.
That’s about it.
Of course you need discipline. Self-control. Will power.
But what is vital is that in some way, at some point, you learn to listen to God’s word.
To feed upon it in your heart.
But it’s not enough to just know these things. Jesus said, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you DO them.”
And the Apostle James said, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
To do the truth is to translate what you read into action. To practice what you learn. Sound simple, right? Well, that may be so, but it has far-reaching implications. And shows up in these five specific behaviors.
Worship
Worship is the first behavior of someone who knows God and their Bible. But how do you worship?
When in Athens, Paul noticed an idol to an unknown God. Interesting. How do you worship something you don’t know? Fortunately, you can know what you worship–namely God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Be like the Bereans. Go after Scripture with “great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” The more you know God, the better you can worship Him.
Repentance
If you consistently and prayerfully read the Bible…it will expose your hypocrisy, your sin. AND it will call you to confess and forsake it.
Isaiah 1:16 says, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight Cease to do evil.” Your proper response then, when God exposes your sin through the Bible, is to repent.
Faith
Faith never occurs in isolation. It occurs in response to someone or something trustworthy. It occurs because of knowledge. That’s true for Christian faith.
The Christian life demands faith in Christ. Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” You find the knowledge of Christ–and His trustworthiness–by reading your Bible. And you grow in faith by reading your Bible. There is no way around it.
Obedience
Do you want to be holy? If so, then the first step towards holiness is a knowledge of what pleases and displeases God. Thus, your deepest ambition should be to live according to Scripture.
Reading the Bible will help you to find out how you should behave in both public and private. More importantly, it will help you cultivate a biblically-conditioned Christian opinion on issues like pornography, poverty and politics.
Witness
Once you’ve regularly spent time in God’s word, it’s only a matter of time before you feel the compulsion to share what you’ve learned. For truth cannot be concealed. Or monopolized. If your eyes have been opened to see it, then you must pass it on.
Conclusion
The Bible has an essential place in the life of a Christian. In fact, without Scripture a Christian life is impossible. It is by the Word that God instructs, reforms, nourishes, encourages and strengthens us. It is truly by his word that we grow into maturity. That we become equipped for every good work.
Are you digging daily and deep into God’s word?
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7 Comments to Five Behaviors of People Who Know Their Bible
“In fact, without Scripture a Christian life is impossible.”
I tend to agree, but it makes me wonder how so many Christians survived without access to a Bible in their own language for 1500+ years. I guess it could be argued that they had Scripture read to them, so they were not “without Scripture,” entirely, but they were clearly not able to dig daily and deep into God’s word.
I’m very thankful to have been born when and where I was, so that I can have access to my own copy of the Bible in my own language, but many Christians have not been so fortunate.
[...] May 12, 2009 in bible, wisdom Really good stuff. [...]
Demian FarnworthMay 12, 2009
Julie…I guess an argument could be made that statement was a tad over-the-top. [Not the first time I've been guilty of such. *blushing.*]
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But it does bring up the point why Luther risked his life to get the Bible in the hands of everyone.
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I’m also grateful that I’ve been born in America and this side of the Reformation. Then again, a believer in China who has nothing but a photocopy of Galatians…You can only imagine he has that thing memorized and pressure-sealed for protection…
Wonderful post, Demian. Thanks so much for the reminders.
You could flesh out all of these points if you had more time. With worship, A bible-living Christian recognizes that it’s an act of giving everything you are to God. Every moment, decision, word, and thought becomes an opportunity and aspiration to worship.
[...] Five Behaviors of People Who Know Their Bible [...]
Demian FarnworthMay 12, 2009
Good point, Matt. I especially like “Every moment, decision, word and thought becomes an opportunity and aspiration to worship.”
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May 12, 2009