Doing And Knowing

But Jesus said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!' “Luke 11:28.

“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.’’ John 7: 17.

Some time ago, I received a letter from one who was evidently an earnest Christian, asking me for some hints to help him in Bible study. My first thought was to answer that there are so many addresses and booklets on the subject, that he would find all I could say, better said already. After a little while, certain experiences in my own immediate circle made me feel how needful instruction was on this all-important subject, and I found there were points to which it appeared desirable that special prominence should be given. I take up my pen with the earnest prayer and hope that what I write may be from God, the fountain of Light and Life, to help His young children to see how they may draw from His precious Word all that Divine instruction and nourishment, all that abundant joy and strength which He has laid up for them.

I suppose myself addressing a young Christian who has said to me: “Help me to study my Bible. Give me some rules to guide me as to how to begin, and how to go on, so that I may know my Bible well.” The very first thing I have to say to him, the thing that comes before all else, is this: In your Bible study, everything will depend upon the spirit in which you come to it, upon the Object or End you propose to yourself. In worldly things, a man is ruled and urged on by the End or Aim he sets before himself. It is not otherwise with the Bible. If your aim is simply to know the Bible well, you will be disappointed. If you think that a thorough knowledge of the Bible will necessarily be a blessing, you are mistaken.

To some it is a curse. To others it is powerless, it does not make them either holy or happy. To some it is a burden, it depresses them instead of quickening them or lifting them up. And what ought then to be the Aim or End, the real disposition of the Bible student? God's word is food, bread from heaven; the first need for Bible study is: — A GREAT HUNGER AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS, a great desire to do all God's will. The Bible is light: the first condition to its enjoyment is a heart longing to walk in God’s ways. Is this not what the texts I have placed above teach us?

“Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.” There is no blessedness in hearing or knowing God’s word apart from keeping it. The word is nothing if it is not kept, obeyed, or done. “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know.” John 7:17. According to this saying of our Lord, all true knowledge of God’s word first depends upon the will to do it.

Is not this the very lesson we are enforcing? God will refuse to unlock the real meaning and blessing of His word to any but to those whose will is definitely set upon doing it. I must read my Bible with one purpose- “Whatsoever He says unto you, do it.”

Why this should be so, is easily ascertained when we think of what words are meant for. They stand between the will and the deed. A man wills to do something for you; before he does it, he expresses his thought or purpose words; then he fulfills the words by doing what he has promised. Even so with God. His words have their value from what He does. In creation, His word was with power: He spoke and it was done. In grace, He does what He says. David prays (2 Samuel 7:25) “Do as you have spoken.” Solomon says at the consecration of the temple—” who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth”; “who has performed His word that He spoke”; “who has kept that which you promised”; “who spoke it with your mouth, and has fulfilled with your hand”; “let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken (2 Chronicles 6: 4, 10, 15, 16, 17.) With the prophets, God says, “ I the Lord have spoken it; I will do it.” And they say, “What you have spoken, is done.”

The truth and worth of what God promises consists in this, that He does it. His word of promise is meant to be done. This is no less true of His word of command, of things which He means us to do. If we do not do them, if we seek to know them, if we admire their beauty and praise their wisdom, but do not do them, we delude ourselves. They are meant to be done; it is only as we do them, that their real meaning and blessing can be unfolded to us.

It is only as we do them that we can really grow in the Divine life. “Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” It is only when we approach God’s words with the same object which God had in view, that they should be done, that we can have any hope of blessing.

Is this not what we see all around us in the pursuit of knowledge, or in any branch of trade? The apprentice or pupil is expected to put the lessons he receives into practice; only then is he prepared for further teaching. And even so in the Christian life, Bible study is more theoretical, a pleasing exercise of mind and imagination, worth little or nothing for a life of true holiness or Christlikeness, until the student is ready never to open or close his Bible without making God’s purpose His very own, and hearkening when He says: ”Do all that I speak.” This was the mark of the saints of old. “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him” “This Moses did; according to all that the LORD commanded him, so he did.” this is the description of the man who as a servant was faithful in all his house. And of David, we read: “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.”

In Psalm 119 we hear him speaking with God about His word, and praying for Divine light and teaching, but ever accompanied by the vow of obedience, or some other expression of love and delight. It is the doing of God’s will that even with God’s own Son, is the one secret of an entrance into the favor and the mind of God.

I have just been reading Mr. Moody’s new book, “Pleasure and Profit in the Bible Study.” I doubt not but many will avail themselves of the suggestions it contains. They will think rightly, what has helped a man like Moody, can help me too. And yet they may be disappointed. They must be, unless they bring to the Bible what Mr. Moody brought: an honest desire to do whatever he saw God wanted him to do. Young Christian! I beseech you by the mercies of God when you ask God to lead you into the treasures of His word, into the palace where Christ dwells, do it as one who presents himself a living sacrifice, ready to do whatever God shall speak.

Do not think this is a matter of course. It is of deeper importance than you know. This is more frequently absent from Bible study than you think. Seek for it with deep humility. The first need for enjoying your food is hunger. The first requirement for Bible study is a simple, determined longing to find out what God wants you to do, and a dead-in-earnest resolve to do it. “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” to him the word of God will be opened up.