Articles
Desiring the Bible—For the Right Reasons
Many years ago when my dad was a young man selling Bibles door-to-door, he met a man who told him, “Yes, I’ll buy one of those Bibles. Maybe now my luck will change!”
I’m curious to know how things went for this fellow after he bought the Bible. If he received a raise, did he attribute it to owning a Bible? If he lost his job or had an accident, did he conclude that maybe the Bible wasn’t worth what he paid for it?
Did he ever read it? Did he see what it really is? Did he come to realize that an unopened Bible is like food in the pantry—potentially beneficial, but useful only when ingested?
Then there are those who do read the Bible, even daily, but that is about as far as they go with it. The Bible is a know-and-do book. If you don’t know it, you can’t do it. But if you don’t do it, knowing it doesn’t count.
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves . . . . But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22, 25 NASB).
The old adage, “Practice what you preach,” is a sound principle. But so is “Practice what you learn.” “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Study—practice—teach. Ezra had it right!
The man who bought the Bible hoped it would change his luck. But the Bible, properly applied, could change his life! That poor fellow was counting on the Bible for something it was never designed to do.
If he had only known . . . .
