All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIVUK
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:27 NIVUK
My daughter makes really good cakes. When she gets married one day, it will be easy to spot her husband. After twenty years he'll be clinically obese and toothless.
What she does in the kitchen is really simple. She figures out what she wants to make, finds a reliable recipe, gathers the ingredients, follows the instructions in the recipe to a tee, and then leaves her mess for her dad to clean up.
She's been doing this for years, and getting it dead right most of the time. Apart from the mess. She's still working on that.
There is no secret to following a recipe.
But how I wish people who call themselves Christians would do the same thing with God's Word, the Bible.
Stop trying to chop bits off you don't like. Stop censoring it or hiding from it or trying to pretend bits of it aren't there, just because they aren't convenient for you.
Read it. Understand it. Obey it.
That is the recipe for life, as James says:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.
James 1:22-25 NIVUK
Let me put it this way. Someone who claims to be a Christian is saying that they are a follower of Jesus Christ. At no point, ever, throughout the four Gospels, did Jesus ever cast doubt on the infallability and inerrancy of Scripture. In fact, we see Jesus reading it publicly (Luke 4:16-21). We see Him citing it (Matthew 12:39-42, 16:4; Luke 11:29-32; John 10:34-36). We even see Him stating that He has come to fulfil it:
‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.
Matthew 5:17 NIVUK
So we need to get something crystal clear: it isn't possible to be a follower of Jesus Christ, call yourself a Christian, and yet simultaneously set aside the Bible.
You can study it, yes. You can seek to understand it in context and re-contextualise it in our day, yes. You can look for historical and archeological evidence to confirm it, yes.
But let no man or woman doubt the Word of God and call themselves a Christian.
How can you?
The very definition of a Christian is a follower of Christ. If Jesus Christ reads the Bible, cites the Bible and fulfils the Bible, then who are you to deny the Bible? Are you greater or more intelligent or more developed than the Son of God Himself? Is that really what you are saying?
If the Bible was so important to Jesus - and, let's not be in any doubt about this, it was - then it absolutely must be as important to us.
Someone who says they are a follower of Jesus Christ ought to read it, study it, memorise it, meditate on it and, most importantly, apply and obey it. Otherwise, who are they following? Because where else can we go to find out the truth about Jesus Christ?
There is one last trait of a Christian in relation to the Bible that is absolutely true: they will not add to it:
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
Revelation 22:18-19 NIVUK
This is how we know the Mormons are wrong - Joseph Smith added to the Bible.
This is how we know the Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong - Charles Taze Russell and Joseph Rutherford added to the Bible.
This is how we know that branches of the Catholic church are wrong - successive popes have added to the Bible.
This is how we know Islam is wrong - Mohammed and his followers added to the Bible.
This is how we know that some fringe Pentecostal groups are wrong - by claiming some of their teachers are so-called 'prophets', they've added to the Bible.
Every religious leader who claims to be able to predict the date and time when Jesus will return, even though He Himself doesn't know (Matthew 24:36), is wrong, because they've added to the Bible.
Every doomsday cult, every whacked-out religious group, every so-called church that has evelated their teachings of their pastors and leaders to infallability, as if they were the very Word of God Himself, are wrong, because they have added to the Bible.
The Bible is right. Every last one of them is wrong.
Maybe you're stunned at my forthrightness.
Maybe you're amazed at how anyone can be so certain about anything.
Maybe you think I'm being incredibly arrogant.
Maybe you think I have phobia.
I don't.
As Paul said in Romans 3:4:
Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar.
Romans 3:4 NIVUK
If you are a Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ, then the Bible is your standard. The Bible is your spirit level. The Bible is your means of discerning right from wrong. The Bible keeps your way pure (Psalm 119:9). The Bible is a lamp for your feet and a light for your path (Psalm 119:105). The Bible is your source of wisdom and knowledge and guidance.
And there is no other. There can be no other. Because the Bible is God's last word. Every other word that claims to be God's word must be measured against the Undisputed Word of God, and if it fails the test, it must be set aside.
This is why every Christian, without fail, must be a reader. Because, first and foremost, they must read the Word of God, the Bible.
Because nothing else is quite like it and nothing else will do.
Questions
1) Do you believe that a Christian should read the Bible? Why?
2) How can the Bible help you tell a real Christian from a fake one?
3) What does the Bible mean to you?
Every believer ought to read the Word. It’s how we navigate our way through life. Trusting in the truth. The Word is what enables me to continue my walk in Life and to navigate my way. The Word of God for me is the most accurate guide for living life. It’s good to memorise verses and passages. Chew on it’s truth throughout the day.