As Christians, of course, we “go to church,” to use the common expression, but, is that enough? Jesus said the greatest commandment was to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Does just “going to church” enable you to love the Lord in that way?
The greatest commandment involves four areas of our life that must be focused on God; our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength. In essence, Jesus is saying we must love God with our total self.
So let me ask you a serious question. How would you feel if your spouse or significant other spent 1-4 hours a week listening to you, but ignored you the rest of the week, except to ask you for things? How do you think God feels when we treat Him like that?
Jesus also said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). How can we keep His commandments if we don’t know what they are? Obviously, we can’t. Even if we know His commandments we still need to be motivated and encouraged to keep them. God does this through the Scriptures (Romans 15:4; Hebrews 12:1).
So let me give you five reasons why you should study the Bible on your own.
- You should study the Bible so you can listen to God and build a deeper relationship with Him (Psalm 119, Yes, the whole Psalm).
- You should study the Bible so that you know the commands that you will be held accountable for on the day of judgment (John 12:48).
- You should study the Bible so that you can be equipped to obey God’s command and be ready for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16,17).
- You should study the Bible to confirm that what your preacher said is actually true (Acts 17:11).
- You should study the Bible so that you can share it with others and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
“Going to church” is an awesome experience that we get to enjoy every week. Hopefully, you are blessed with the opportunity to get together with the church at least four times a week. Equally wonderful is our daily time with God as we read and study His Word.
Question: What other reasons would you list for studying the Bible? You can leave a commit by clicking here.