Why should we study the Bible? Why bother opening this book to read it and try to learn its message? Why are preachers and elders always encouraging us to read our Bible at home and other places on our own? Christians get enough Bible on Sunday and Wednesday, don’t they? How important is it to read and study the Bible? If we believe the Bible to be God’s word, which it is, then we should see the importance in spending as much time as possible reading it, and try to gain as much knowledge from it as we can.

Why study the Bible? Here are twenty simple reasons:

1. God has commanded us to (John 5:39; Eph. 5:17).
2. The Bible is the inspired word of God (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20,21; 2 Sam. 23:2; 1 Thess. 2:13).
3. It is the only way to know God’s Thoughts and Will for us (Isa. 55:8,9; 1 Cor. 2:9-16).
4. It is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).
5. It builds us up (edifies), and is able to give us an inheritance (Acts 20:32).
6. It is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105).
7. It saves us (James 1:21).
8. It thoroughly furnishes (equips) us unto all good works (2 Tim. 3:15-17).
9. It makes us wise (2 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 5:17).
10. Its words endure forever and will not pass away (1 Peter 1:23-25; Matt. 24:35).
11. It is through the Bible that we are called by God (2 Thess. 2:14).
12. It is that by which we will be judged (John 12:48).
13. It is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (John 17:17; Titus 1:2).
14. Faith comes from it, and nothing else (Rom. 10:17).
15. We study so that we will not sin (Psalm 119:11; 1 John 2:1; 1 Cor. 10:6-12).
16. Those who search the scriptures are considered by God to be noble (Acts 17:11).
17. It reveals all we know about the church (Eph. 3:1-11).
18. We will be able to teach it to others (Heb. 5:12; 2 Tim. 2:2).
19. We will be able to give an answer to every man who asks about the hope in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15), contend for the faith (Jude 3), and be set for the defense of the Gospel (Phil. 1:17).
20. We love God and His word (Psalm 119:97, 119, 127, 159, 167).

Christians today do not know the Bible like Christians did in the past. In many congregations of the church, preachers and Bible class teachers are more concerned with pleasing the listeners, entertaining the youth and keeping large crowds.

We need elders who will make sure the flock is being fed God’s word (Acts 20:28). Sometimes parents neglect their duty to raise their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). But, sometimes, we ourselves simply do not put forth enough effort in reading and studying the Bible, God’s word, on our own.

Hearing it preached once or twice a week, or sitting in two or three Bible classes a week (if we attend them all) is not enough.

If something is getting in the way of our searching the Scriptures daily, then we need to get rid of whatever that is in our life, or learn how to manage our time better. A Christian who is too busy to read God’s word daily, is too busy. Satan is continually seeking Christians’ souls to destroy (1 Peter 5:8). When he gets one Christian to stop growing, that Christian has died. So, let us read, study, and know God’s word so that we can “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), and “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye [we] may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).

Jacob Campbell