The Bible Student

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." Psalms 1: 2 There is a loud call on every side for more, for truer, Bible study. Evangelists like Mr. Moody and many others, have proved what power there is in preaching drawn directly from God's word, and inspired by the faith of its power. Earnest Christians have asked: "Why cannot our ministers speak in the same way, giving the very word of God a larger place? '' Many a young minister has come away from the Theological Hall, confessing that he had been taught everything but the knowledge of how to study the Word himself, and then to stir up and help others to study it.

In some of our Churches, the desire has been expressed to supply this need in the training of ministers. It might appear a very simple thing to find good men to undertake the work; and yet it has been found difficult for men with theological training to turn to the simplicity and directness of appeal to God's Word, which is needed to show younger men the way to make Scripture the one source of their knowledge and teaching. In the Students' Movement of our day, God be praised.

Bible study has had the place of prominence given to it. There is a wonderful opportunity, as there is a very great need, for so guiding it that it may bring a full blessing to the individual lives, by giving God's word its true place in the work to be done for Him. Let us look at the principles underlying the demand for more Bible study, and in faithfulness to which alone, it can be truly carried out 1. God's Word Is the Only Authentic Revelation of God's Will. All human statements of Divine truth, however correct, are defective and carry a measure of human authority. In the word, the voice of God speaks to us directly. Every child of God is called to direct oneness with the Father, through the Word. As God reveals all His heart and grace in it, His child can, if he receives it from God, get all the life and power there is in the word into his own heart and being. We know how few second-hand reports of messages or events can be fully trusted. Very few men report accurately what they have heard. Every believer has the right and calling, to stand in direct communication with God. It is in the word God has revealed, it is in the word He still reveals, Himself to each individual.

2. This word of God is a living word. It carries a Divine quickening power in it. The human expression of the truth is often a mere conception or image of the truth, appealing to the mind and having little or no effect. The faith of its being God’s own word and of the presence and power in it, makes it effectual. All life or spirit creates for itself a form in which it is made manifest.

The words in which God has chosen to clothe His own Divine thoughts are God-breathed and the life of God dwells in them. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. The word was not only inspired when first given: the Spirit of God still breathes in it. God is still in and with His word. Christians and teachers need to believe this. It will lead them to give the simple Divine word a confidence that no human teaching may have.

3. God Himself alone can, and most surely will, be the Interpreter of His own word. Divine truth needs a Divine Teacher. Spiritual apprehension of spiritual things can only come from the Holy Spirit. The deeper the conviction of the unique character of the word, essentially different from, and infinitely exalted above, all merely human apprehension, the more urgently will the need be felt of a supernatural, a directly Divine, teaching. And all the more will the blessing be wrought which is the great purpose of the word. The soul will be brought to seek God Himself, and it will be led to find Him in the Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart. As that spirit, in whom God, so wonderfully, has entered our very life and identified Himself with it, is waited on and trusted, He will make us to know wisdom in the hidden part, in the heart and disposition. The word prayerfully read and cherished in the heart in this faith, will through the Spirit, be both light and life within us.

4. The word then brings us into the closest and most intimate fellowship with God- unity of will and life. In the word God has revealed His whole heart and all His will: in His law and precepts what He wills us to do: in His redemption and His promises what He wills to do for us. As we accept that will in the word as from God Himself, and yield ourselves to its working, we learn to know God in His will, in the power of which He works in us, and in which His condescending love is known. And the word works out His richest purpose as it fills us with the reverence and dependence that comes from the Divine presence and nearness. Nothing less than this must be our aim, may be our experience, in all our Bible study.

Let us now take these four thoughts over again and make the practical application. In Holy Scripture, we have the very words in which the Holy God has spoken and in which He speaks to us. These words are, today, full of the life of God. God is in them, and makes His presence and power known to them who seek Him in them. To those who ask and wait for the teaching of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, the Spirit will reveal the spiritual meaning and power of the word. The word is thus meant every day to be the means of the revelation of God Himself to the soul and of fellowship with Him. Have we learned to apply these truths? Do we understand that the word ever says “Seek God”? Hearken to God. Wait for God. God will speak to you. Let God teach you?”

All we hear about more Bible teaching and Bible study must lead to this one thing. We must be men, and we must help to train others to be men, with whom the word is never separated from the living God Himself, and who live as men to whom God in heaven speaks every day and all day.