Each of us needs to examine how we actually handle God’s Word. Do we exercise passion, care, and depth in the way we get into God’s Word? Do we know the Bible well? It not only helps us not to be destroyed by false teaching, it will also enable us to be useful to the Master. It is difficult to think of anyone who does not take the Bible seriously—in reading, meditating, and applying it in life—and is nevertheless useful to the Lord. Those who have been greatly used by the Lord always emphasise the importance of reading the Bible with care, reverence, faith, and obedience.

In the Preface to his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, John Wesley offered the following advice on effective Bible reading:¹

1. To set apart a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose.
2. At each time if you have leisure, to read a chapter out of the Old, and one out of the New Testament: if you cannot do this, to take a single chapter, or a part of one.
3. To read this with a single eye, to know the whole will of God, and a fixed resolution to do it.
4. In order to know his will, you should, have a constant eye to the analogy of faith; the connexion and harmony there is between those grand, fundamental doctrines: Original sin, justification by faith, the new birth, inward and outward holiness.
5. Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used, before we consult the oracles of God, seeing “scripture can only be understood thro’ the same Spirit whereby it was given.” Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written on our hearts.
6. It might also be of use, if while we read, we were frequently to pause, and examine ourselves by what we read, both with regard to our hearts, and lives. This would furnish us with matter of praise, where we found God had enabled us to conform to his blessed will, and matter of humiliation and prayer, where we were conscious of having fallen short.

The instrument that is useful to the Lord is a cleansed instrument (2 Timothy 2:21). Our Lord said, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3); He also prayed for His disciples in His High Priestly prayer: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Furthermore, Paul taught that Christ gave Himself for the church “to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word” (Ephesians 5:26).

The Word of God is used by God to cleanse us and make us clean vessels as we believe and act upon the Word, obeying Jesus through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Through the careful handling of God’s Word, we will gain both purity of doctrine as we are cleansed of false doctrines and ideas, and purity of life as we are cleansed of sinfulness. And in this way our usefulness to the Lord is enhanced. A poor workman of the Word will not be of use to the Lord, but a good and diligent workman will be of great use to Him.

Therefore, how well do you know the Bible? How seriously are you applying it in life and service? Your answer will show how useful you are to the Lord—whether you are a noble instrument or not.

¹  John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, in The Works of John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 14:267–268.

Consider this:

Discuss John Wesley’s six points on effective Bible reading. Which of these do you find most difficult to practise? Share about the resources you use to help you read the Bible more effectively.

Excerpted and adapted from Faithful to the End: A Preacher’s Exposition of 2 Timothy by Robert M. Solomon. ©2014 by Robert M. Solomon. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Related Resources:

How Can I Know God through His Book?. You can tell a lot about a person by what he writes. If this is true of books men write, it is even more true of the Bible, the book that was written to reveal its Author to us. Learn how to know God through study of the Bible. Find out more here.

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