“And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Eccl. 12:12). This verse is not discouraging Bible study but showing the inadequacy of human knowledge. However, life’s triumph is through God and his commandments, which starts with diligent bible study (Eccl. 12:13; 2 Pet. 1:5-10).
Jesus taught that one successfully builds their house/life upon “the rock” through ascertaining his will and doing it (Matt. 7:23-27; cf. Ps. 127:1). Therefore, bible study is imperative. God’s word is replete with admonitions for study (Job 23:12; Ps. 119:33-35; Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4; 2 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2) just to name a few. There are serious consequences for disregarding bible study. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…” (Hos. 4:6; cf. Is. 5:13). Unfortunately, some still fail to comprehend the pressing need for bible study. It is not enough to rest in what we already know but we must continue to daily dig for more (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:1-2; Acts 17:11).
I remember participating in mock debates (pretend/practice) back in Preaching School with Dave Miller who was the Director then and who is now the Executive Director of Apologetic’s Press. We were all assigned basic bible subjects to defend while he took erroneous positions against us. We were encouraged to use the library to study old debates to prepare for our debate but were not forced to. My assignment was to biblically defend that “baptism is for the remission of sins” and Brother Miller would erroneously argue that baptism was not for the remission of sins. Well, at the time I could quote just about every New Testament scripture on baptism and so I didn’t believe I needed to study and took the two days of study hall off. The day of the debate I invited my wife but things didn’t go the way that I had planned. That day Brother Miller took the false position and whooped me like I had stolen something, even though the truth was on my side. He embarrassed me in front of my wife and everyone else. But it was my own fault because I chose not to study. Thankfully, it wasn’t an actual debate. The experience helped me to study more and hopefully my embarrassing lesson learned will help you.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
