Why Should a Regular Person Study the Bible?

“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 NIV

Isn’t Bible study just for the pros?

Have you ever picked up a Bible and felt intimidated? Does learning straight from the Bible seem like something only the “professionals” – pastors and teachers and missionaries and seminary folks – can do? Maybe you don’t know where to start, or what to think about while you read, or what questions to ask to get oriented with the Bible. Maybe you don’t know why you should even go to the trouble.

You’re not alone. I’ve been there, myself. But the ability to study God’s Word is not a mystical power God only gives to the professionals or to the elite few. It’s a skill that anyone can develop and learn to do well – anyone who’s willing to 1) put in some effort and 2) keep a humble heart before the Lord.

That verse above doesn’t say “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful…that the pastors and professionals may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” It says God gave us His Word so “that the servant of God” may be thoroughly equipped. And we are ALL servants of God (Psalm 24:1, 1 Peter 2:16). 

I’m not an expert. I’m not a professional. I’m just a regular person who loves Jesus. I asked the Lord to help me love and learn to study His Word, and He provided! And I’d love to share with you what I’ve learned – some basics of Bible study that all of us can learn and apply.

To begin, I’ll bring up the underlying question we should all consider:

Why should I study the Bible at all?

To answer that question, I’ll ask a few more:

• Have you ever wondered who God really is, and what He really wants?
• Have you ever wondered who you really are, and what you really want? 
• Have you ever wondered why you exist, or how you should live, or what’s going to happen to you after you die?
• Have you ever wondered if you could ever get real answers to those questions?
• Have you ever wondered whether there’s anything you can really know for sure?

If you have, good job! And if you haven’t, I’d encourage you to start wondering. These are important questions, and the way we answer them (and we do all answer them, even if we don’t think about it) impacts everything in our lives. 

Whether you’ve been wrestling with those questions or are just now uncomfortably pondering them for the first time, I’ve got good news for you: the true answers to all these questions are available to you, for free, and they’re all in one place.

The God who created everything – the God who created you – has told us everything we need to know right in the Bible! He has given us the answers to all those most-important questions of life.

We’ve got solid evidence and good reasons to believe that the Protestant Bibles we have really are from God, and really are trustworthy. I’ve provided resources for that here, and I encourage you to look into that further if you haven’t already. Knowing why we believe what we believe – even about the Bible – and seeing the evidence God has provided for us strengthens our faith and guards us against opposition and doubts (which we all face from time to time). 

Since the Bible really is from God, we can trust what it says! One of the things it says is right at the top of this post. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 informs us that Scripture teaches us what’s true, shows us where we’re wrong, tells us what’s right, and trains us to live righteously – in short, equips us to be mature and complete and to do every good thing. In His Word, God tells us and shows us who He is, who we are, what our purpose is, what He’s done for us, and what He promises to do for us. He answers all our most important questions!

And that’s a great reason to study the Bible. 

For another reason why, let’s take a look at the “what.”

What is the Bible, really? 

The Bible is not just one book. It’s actually a compilation of 66 books, written across about 1500 years, by roughly 40 men of diverse backgrounds, on three continents. (You can read more about that here.) Think about that – even with all those different writers, even with all that time between the writings, even without the assistance of computers or the internet to make sure everything matches, even though none of the later writers had their own copies of all the earlier books, even though each book has its own theme and literary genre and historical context, there is complete unity and agreement across all 66 books! Not a single contradiction. (If you’d like to see how I can say there are no contradictions, even though some people claim there are lots of them, check out this 3-video playlist from Mike Winger.) 

This is part of the beautiful evidence that God is the true Author of the Bible. 

What does it mean that the Bible is inspired by God?

The question of how God is the true Author of the Bible, when we know that men wrote it down, is a valid one! 

Some people hear the word “inspired” and they think of artists being inspired to create a painting, or poets being inspired to write poetry – and in these cases, the object “doing” the inspiring isn’t actually doing anything at all. It’s the artist or the poet who is thinking about those objects in a certain way, feeling inspired to paint or write about that thing. Some people apply this definition to God’s inspiration of the Bible, and assume that men were “inspired” to write about God the best way they knew how, to the best of their own abilities – that these men were moved and impassioned by the idea of God, or maybe by some things God did, or maybe even by what they knew (or thought they knew) about God and who He is. But this is not what God means when He tells us He inspired Scripture!

What God means is that He authored all the content of the Bible through men, making sure that they wrote exactly what He wanted them to write – this is what we mean when we say the Bible is “inspired” by God. Another way to say “inspired” the way the Bible means it is “God-breathed,” like we see in our theme verse above. Now, that’s not a common phrase, but when we think about it, all of our speaking includes breathing out. That’s how we make sounds: by breathing air out across our vocal cords. So “breathed out” or “God-breathed” is a metaphor for God communicating to us with words through Scripture.

I like this illustration Andrew Wilson gave in his book Unbreakable: 

“Consider a jazz musician who can play all sorts of different instruments. Nobody, listening to Louis Armstrong, would ask whether the music was being made by Louis or his trumpet; everybody knows that the breath and the tune come from Louis, but the instrument through which the breath passes, in order to become audible, is the trumpet. The Bible writers, if you like, are the instruments of revelation – a trumpet here, an oboe there, a saxophone here – and they all make different sounds. But the musician, the skilled artist who fills them all with his breath and ensures the tune is played correctly, is the Holy Spirit. That’s kind of how inspiration works.”

The Bible, then, is God’s own written revelation to humanity. 

In His love, the God of the whole universe chose to reveal Himself to us and tell us what we need to know. He created us, so He knows what we need and He knows how to communicate with us – and He has communicated in a way we can understand. He created language, and He used language to speak to us. He created logic, and He used logic we can grasp. We don’t have the capacity to understand everything, of course, because our minds are finite and God is infinite, but we definitely have the capacity, given to us by God, to understand enough to know God, to submit our hearts to Him, and to live the way God means for us to live. 

God’s written Word is an amazing provision for us and gift to us for our own benefit – and that’s another reason we should diligently and joyfully study it! 

But it’s such a big Book! What if I’m too far behind?

Now, I said above that the Bible is 66 books. Anyone who’s glanced into one knows it has a LOT of information in it. It’s long. It’s definitely not a quick read – and actually studying it and learning from it takes even longer! And I understand how that can feel intimidating. 

We are all at different levels of knowledge when it comes to God’s Word. Some have just found out that the Bible is a compilation of books, and may never have read any of it. Some have been studying it for most of their lives. But regardless of how little or how much you already know, we are all in the same boat – there is infinitely more to learn! We can never get to the end of what Scripture reveals, because God Himself is infinite! 

Rather than feeling overwhelmed or defeated or intimidated by this, make the choice to be excited and full of hope! In this moment, God doesn’t expect us to know more than we know. I’ll make that personal for you: in this moment, right here, right now, God doesn’t expect you to know more than you know. He knows where you are, and He meets you where you are (even if it’s messy!) – but He doesn’t intend to leave you there. His purpose is to grow you (and me) closer to Him, to make us more like Him, to help us live out all the Truth He’s provided for us in His Word.

Thankfully, our good God is full of grace toward each of us. He doesn’t expect us to learn everything immediately. He just expects us to be diligent to keep learning! We aren’t meant to compare ourselves to or judge ourselves against one another; we’re just meant to make progress every day. The Lord will grow us as we submit to Him in our hearts, our efforts, our time, and our study. And that is a joyful, exciting truth!

God has lovingly gifted His Word to us, and there is nothing more worthy of our time, effort, and attention. Let me repeat that, because this is so important – there is nothing more worthy of our time, effort, and attention! In the Bible, the God who created the universe and everything in it (including you!) has revealed the most important things we could ever learn. He has revealed Himself, His plan of salvation through Jesus, and everything we need to know both to live the right way now and to live joyfully with Him for eternity. He has given us the answers to our deepest questions, the keys to peace and joy and hope and truth and life – and He means for us to work with glad hearts to study and learn what He’s revealed, to our own infinite benefit.

Whether you have never picked up a Bible in your life or you’ve studied yours since you were young, be encouraged: God has an endless supply of truth and goodness and help for you in His Word. You’ll never get to the end of it – which is a wonderful thing! If you keep your eyes on Him and your heart submitted to Him, you’ll never, ever get bored, even if you read through the Bible four times a year for 75 years in a row! There will always be more to learn about our good God and His love.

So grab your Bible, my friend, and soften your heart, and seek the Lord through reading and studying His Word. You’ll never regret it.

If you aren’t sure where to start or how to study, click here for
Part 2: “What Should a Regular Person Know to Study the Bible Well?”
and then check out
Part 3: “How Can a Regular Person Study the Bible?”

And if you like this content, subscribe below to make sure you don’t miss future posts!