The Seven Blessings of Attending Weekly Bible Study

Yes, it takes precious time out of your week that could be spent with friends, family, cramming for a test, and catching up with projects at work. Whereas those investments of time give only temporary benefits, God’s Word gives salvation and eternal life. A moment in the Scriptures is never a moment wasted. When we gather together as the church to sit at Jesus’ feet, as Mary was content to sit and learn from her Lord, we chose the “one thing needful,” Jesus’s saving Word, which will not be taken away (Luke 10:42).

1. You’ll learn God’s desires and plans for your life

The Bible’s relevance wasn’t limited to the Hebrews who heard it preached in their Temple and Synagogues. Neither was it limited to the Apostles’ first century hearers. Its truths are both divine and eternal. This is a result of its singular author. Books by human authors are always limited in what they can offer. Their insights which are praised as sublime in one generation can just as easily be ignored in the next. The Scriptures, however, are not fallible words of men, though men wrote down the words. St. Peter writes, “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). The Holy Spirit himself is the author! Which is why St. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). Unlike human words, God’s words will never be forgotten. Though some people put down their Bibles and despise God’s Word, others will hear, believe, and be blessed. Isaiah preaches, “The Word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Spiritual guides, experts, and mystics promise all kinds of ways to discover eternal truth, usually at a price. But God has sent his wisdom to you in a Word that you can hear, read, and understand. Its truths are spiritual, of course. It imparts heavenly truths about who God is and what he says and thinks. More than that, they impart eternal life and salvation. St. Paul says the Holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). But they’re also practical. They teach you the kind of life God finds pleasing. They teach you how to tell the difference between the good works that uphold God’s gifts of life and the wicked works of sin which tear down what God has blessed and called good. St. Paul explains that the inspired Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).

To read more about how the Scriptures reveal the life God wants you to have and live read Psalm 25:4; Proverbs 2:6-11; and Psalm 119:105.

2. Your faith will be confirmed and strengthened by hearing the Gospel.

The Scriptures are full of commands to teach, speak, and hear them (Exodus 19:6; Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 6:7; Mark 16:15; 2 Timothy 4:2; etc.). Your Bible is less a book to be studied, as you would pour over a textbook to pass a test, and more a book of promises that are meant to be proclaimed and believed. The promises are about Christ. As you read, mark, and learn its passages, your conscience will be comforted and set at peace by Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Old Testament teaches who he will be and what he will do. The New Testament teaches how Jesus fulfilled all the promises of salvation. Jesus himself says, “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). St. Peter preaches, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” The phrase, “through his name,” means preaching. St. Paul says that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Faith saves. That faith isn’t something we stir up in our own hearts. It’s a gift from God that he gives through hearing the Word. Bible Study is God strengthening and confirming your saving faith. It’s God giving you the gift of a good conscience and the hope of eternal life.

3. You get to learn more about your Bible.

We’re not born knowing our Bible’s table of contents. Neither should we expect to absorb Bible knowledge and literacy from public schools and Netflix. The world has forgotten the basic biblical truths that serve as a foundation for human life, so much to the point that it’s assumed that two men can be married and that infants in the womb don’t count as human beings. It used to be that you could mention the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark, David and Bathsheba, and Jesus’ miracles and your fellow Americans would know what you’re talking about. That’s no longer true. If folks don’t speak about the Bible’s story at home, among friends, or in school, how are we going to keep this sacred history in our minds?

When you come to Bible Study, you’ll learn about where the books come from, who wrote them, and how they fit into Jesus’ story. You’ll learn about the two chief teachings of Law and Gospel and how to distinguish them. You’ll learn about how the Bible’s history is the world’s history. You’ll discover that amid the rise and fall of civilizations, God remained faithful to his people by giving them his Word. You’ll learn about how real people were saved by God’s grace through faith. Their lives are examples for us. Hearing about their faithfulness strengthens our own faith. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin, which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). And again St. Paul writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

St. Peter says he doesn’t preach “cleverly devised myths,” but he, with all the other prophets and apostles, are eyewitnesses of God’s majesty revealed on earth through the person of Christ. St. John also preaches,

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

Complete your joy also by learning about God’s saving intervention in our human history. Learn the complete truth about how God became man in the person of Christ. Learn how for thousands of years God’s people were waiting for the fulfillment of their hope. Learn how their faith, like yours, was not put to shame.

4. You get to ask your pastor questions about what you’re reading.

Your pastor has been trained to teach what’s in the Bible. That’s his job. He takes the eternal and practical truths of salvation and preaches them for every man, woman, and child in his congregation. St. Paul told the pastor Timothy to do the same. “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2). That’s how Timothy was to “fulfill” his ministry (vs. 5), by devoting himself to “the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13).

Take advantage of what your pastor has been taught. It’s not to the Ethiopian Eunuch’s shame that he had to ask Philip for help understanding what Isaiah wrote (Acts 8:30-31). It gave Philip the chance to fulfill his God-given ministry of preaching the Gospel. The results were for the Eunuch baptism, salvation, and eternal life. Nothing has changed between that time and now. Asking questions about the harder parts of the Bible to understand will give the Pastor a chance to explain how it fits into Jesus’ story. It will give him a chance to preach the Gospel and for your to be blessed by hearing it.

5. Fellow saints encourage you’re study and growth in Christian knowledge and life.

Trying to fight off the attacks of your flesh, the devil’s temptations, and the world’s enticements is impossible by yourself. The Lord, Jesus, never intended you to fight alone. “The Lord your God fights for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22)! He has also surrounded you with Christian brothers and sisters who share the same temptations and attacks. When we are weak, they can be strong for us. They can offer up prayers and supplications for us to God’s almighty throne. But how will they know about our needs if we fight as a spiritual army of one? They won’t. Seeing your fellow saints struggle and persevere in the faith will give you hope and remind you that no temptation from the devil or bodily weakness can rob the church of Jesus’ redemption and salvation (Romans 8:38-39).

Just as you are encouraged by the communion of the saints as you receive Jesus’ body and blood at the altar, seeing your Christian brothers and sisters ask the same questions you’ve been pondering and pestering the pastor with the same problems that have been struggling with will encourage you to continue searching the Scriptures for saving answers. The Word of God will not fail you. It will give you Jesus who has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Do you want the same church experience as the first followers of Christ in the days after Pentecost? Bible study is the perfect opportunity to imitate their faith. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

6. You get to encourage fellow saints in their study and growth in Christian knowledge and life.

The author to the Hebrews writes, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Be mindful of how to help your fellow Christians to remain strong in the faith. The simplest things are sometimes the best things to do. When you come to Bible study, even if you’re not all that enamored with the Pastor’s style of teaching and you think that you’ll not get anything out of it, your fellow saints will see and rejoice in that you took the time to come. They’ll see your faith and want to imitate it.

St. Paul writes, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). Do you consider yourself a leader in the church? Have you instructed your children in the faith in the home? Then set an example in the church that others can imitate that relies not on men’s wisdom and strength, but on God’s which he delivers through the Word.

7. It keeps God’s Third Commandment.

Never doubt that going to Bible study is a good work.  It is, as Luther describes, the opposite of despising God’s Word. It is holding it sacred by hearing and learning it. Though it might seem a chore, though you’re worried about your pastor boring you to sleep, come with the knowledge that God sees the fruits of your faith. Come with the assurance that the angels in heaven rejoice to see you reading and studying, within the fellowship of saints, the words that give life and salvation. If you can’t make it on Sundays, find another study during the week to attend. If you never attend a study because you just don’t have time in your schedule, consider what those competing activities are in comparison to God’s lasting and abiding Word. This Lent find the time to be in the Word with your brothers and sisters. Be blessed with them, as a member of Christ’s body, the Church, with the Water of Life, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus gives without measure and can be found nowhere outside his saving Word.

To God alone be the glory!