Why Read the Bible?

Matthew 22:37-40 And He (Jesus) said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

How can we love God and others if we do not first seek to know Him and them? I can say that I love my family, but if I do not spend time with my wife or my daughter then those words will be meaningless. Likewise, if I say that I love God and that I have been bought with His blood and yet do not seek to spend time in getting to know Him then my words and my life are meaningless.

The question then becomes, "How do I get to know God?". The most obvious answer is to grab a Bible, God's Word by which He reveals Himself to humans, and start reading. It is by opening up the Word of God and asking Him to give me understanding as I read it that we will be begin to know who He is and what He wants us to do. It is by spending time listening to Him as we read that we will gain a sense of who He is and who we are in comparison. We will find within the pages of the Bible, not a cold objective list of do's and dont's, but the story of the glory of God and His work to redeem a people to Himself so that He will receive the glory because He alone is worthy of all worship! We will see within the pages of the Bible where we fit into that story of God and how we through His work of salvation in our lives can bring Him glory in this life and for all eternity. The Bible is a God-centered book; it is not primarily focused on humans.

Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Just a few verses later in John 14:21 He says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." So here is where the importance of spending time reading the Bible comes into play. Not only do we have to first know God and spend time with Him in order to show our love for Him, but He says that we show that we love Him by keeping His commandments. And how can we keep His commandments if we do not know what it is that He commands us to do? In order to know what His commandments are we must read His Word.

I truly hope that each of you are opening up the Bible each day so as to know God more. If you don't know where to begin let me direct you to a few resources. First off, in our church we have a publication called, "LifeWalk" which is put out by LifeWay which will take you through each book of the Bible in a year. If you would like to try some other reading plan then you can try one of these Bible Reading Plans. At any rate, please seek to know God because it is the most important issue in your life you will face. Read...so that we may know Him!