Chapter 3 details how believers grow in obedience and love to Lord Jesus, that is, by the inspired word of God.
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According to Luke, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, two men on their way to the village of Emmaus were talking about the astounding events that had just happened. “So it was,” he said, “while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him” (Luke 24:15–16). Jesus walked with them without revealing to them who He was, and asked them what they were talking about. They admitted that they were “hoping that it was He [Jesus] who was going to redeem Israel” (verse 21), but that now He was dead, and they thought His plans would go unfulfilled, along with their hopes.
Once they reached the village, the two men invited Jesus to stay with them. As they began to eat, He revealed Himself to them and then vanished from their sight (verses 30–31). The essential point here is the reaction of the men in the next verse: “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’ ” I like to say they were members of the fellowship of the burning heart. When a true believer hears God’s Word, it lights a fire in the heart. 
That is certainly the idea behind the Psalms. In many cases the writers’ hearts burned for the Word of the Lord. Psalm 1:2 says of a blessed man, “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 19:10 says God’s Word is “more to be desired…than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”
There is great joy in understanding God’s Word, and even greater joy in obeying it. We’ve seen that believers have an eagerness to obey God’s commands. But to do so, they need to know what those commands are. Everything you need to know to grow in the Christian faith is in the Bible. The Bible is the fountainhead of all spiritual and eternal wisdom and instruction and the source of every good thing.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE
Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God’s Word provides life and injects it with all that makes you want to live it. Once you begin to direct your life according to the Word of God, life in Christ takes on a full, rich, and exciting meaning.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF POWER
As you lift up the Scriptures, you hold in your hand a supernatural resource that has the power to change every area of your life in a way that brings you closer to Christ.
The Power of Conviction. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Conviction of sin tells us that something is wrong with our souls the way physical pain tells us something is wrong with our bodies. Nothing pierces to the heart of our sin like God’s truth. That’s why daily Bible reading and study are so important. When you desire to be all that God wants you to be, you will allow Him to use His Word to penetrate those hidden areas of your life, convict you of your faults, and show you how to repent of them.
The Power of Salvation. In Romans 1:16 Paul tells us, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” The Bible has the power to save us from sin. Therefore it has the power to give us eternal life with God in heaven.
The Power of Transformation. Further on, in chapter 12 of his letter to the church in Rome, Paul says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (verses 1–2). As you study the Bible and understand its truths, it transforms your thinking. It will begin to wean you off worldly pleasures and cause you to desire godliness. It has the power to separate you from the world’s system, pull you away from the love of worldly things, and plant in your heart a love for godly things. Paul called Scripture “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) because in it is revealed what our Lord thinks. Whoever knows Scripture knows the Lord’s thoughts on all that is revealed there.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS
True happiness in life results from the transformation of your thinking processes. Colossians 1:16 says that “all things were created through Him and for Him.” That includes you. Since you were made for God, you won’t know true happiness until you know what pleases Him. But you won’t know what that is until you know what His manual for living—the Bible—says. As you study His Word and learn to live by His principles, you’ll begin to experience great satisfaction and happiness. The prophet Jeremiah realized that when he said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).
When you understand what God wants out of your life and all the promises He has prepared for you, it will bring you joy beyond imagining. Maybe you’re having problems in a relationship. Perhaps your home isn’t all it ought to be. Maybe you don’t have the money to buy something you desperately need. You might be struggling in school or on the job. Even though nothing seems to be working for your good now, I can promise you everything will work out in the end. How can I make a reckless promise like that? Because God’s promises in Christ will be fulfilled in you. The Bible says so. And that gives every Christian a reason to rejoice.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF MINISTRY
Paul gave Timothy the strategy for reaching others with the truth when he said, “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Just as in a relay race one runner passes the baton to the next, so we pass the baton of God’s truth from one to another. Paul committed divine truth to Timothy, and Timothy in turn was to commit that truth to others. Only as you know the Word of God can you pass it on to someone else, who can then do the same thing. In that way the Word spreads throughout the world like ripples across a pond.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF TRUTH
We live in the information age. There is nothing you can’t find these days on the Internet. Then we have TV, DVD, MP3, and all the rest. Yet what Paul told Timothy two thousand years ago is just as true today: People are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). There’s still too much information, and divine wisdom is scarce.
Real truth—God’s truth—is life-changing. It changes how you view life, death, time, and eternity. That’s because once you are a part of God’s family, your perspective on life in this world is based on a heavenly point of view, not an earthly one. Your Bible is the only source of that truth. Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). If you want to know about anything—from God to man, from heaven to earth, from past to future, from the intellect to the emotions—it’s all in the Bible.
Scripture gives us the answers we can’t find on our own. It is divinely revealed truth that fills the vacuum of spiritual ignorance in all of us. Three short verses in Psalm 19:7–9 describe how biblical truth has the authority and sufficiency to answer the important questions of life.
It Is Perfect, Restoring the Soul. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Perfect comes from a Hebrew word that means “comprehensive” or “complete.” That means the Bible contains all the truth necessary to transform and restore the human soul.
The Bible offers hope for all those weighed down by a sense of their own failure. Because it is perfect truth, it can revive man’s dead soul and offer new life to those broken by sin and failure. If you are apathetic, Scripture will convict you of sin and show you your real needs. But if you are crushed with emptiness, guilt, and anxiety, God’s Word contains truth that can transform your soul with new life in Christ.
It Is Sure and Wise. The psalmist continues, “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (verse 7). Natural intelligence is at best a leap in the dark. Even the most perceptive philosopher will tell you there is no certainty in human wisdom. At his best, man is totally inadequate in the pursuit of divine truth. God can be known only if He reveals Himself.
I cannot know a person unless that person speaks to me and opens his heart. So with God, He can be known only if He chooses to reveal Himself. And He has. That is what the Bible is—God’s self-revelation. God’s Word is infallible, totally reliable in every sense. In contrast to human wisdom, which is based on academic pursuit, the Bible can make a simple person wise. All that God wants you to know in life is covered in His Word. It will tell you all you must know to be saved and to grow spiritually, all you need to live and serve God, and even things like how to build lasting friendships, how to develop communication skills, and how to build a solid marriage. All you need is a teachable mind, a receptive spirit, and an obedient heart.
It Is Right, Rejoicing the Heart. In Psalm 19:8 King David wrote, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Everyone wants a happy and contented life. The problem is that we look for joy in all the wrong places. Real happiness cannot be found in pleasure and materialism. People won’t find lasting joy in sinful self-gratification and the hedonistic pursuit of money, sex, alcohol, and drugs. Those are all dead ends, as you now know.
God offers real satisfaction only to people who obey His Word. He wants us to be happy. He designed us so that the greatest possible joy comes as a fruit of our obedience to Him.
Best of all, the gladness He gives is not the kind that ends when the party is over. It is a rich, deep joy that operates even in the midst of life’s most difficult trials. No matter what pressures you may face in life, He will strengthen and guide you through His Word.
It Is Pure, Enlightening the Eyes. Verse 8 continues, “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Scripture makes sense out of the dark things of life. In a world filled with lying, cheating, murder, war, and tragedy, Scripture helps us understand the depth of man’s depravity without God.
What comfort can philosophy offer to someone who loses a child? What can human wisdom say to a person whose spouse has cancer? Only God’s Word can speak with authority to the deep needs of life as it enlightens the eyes of those who submit to its truth.
The Bible may not always give easy answers to the hard questions we ask, but the truth it reveals is far superior to the pat answers of human wisdom. Scripture declares the character of God. It shows Him as a loving, caring, all-wise, and omnipotent Sovereign who remains in control no matter how bleak this sin-darkened world may be.
It Is Clean, Enduring Forever. Verse 9 begins, “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.” “The fear of the Lord” is parallel to “the law,” “the testimony,” “the precepts,” and “the commandment” of verses 7–8. It is another of the psalmist’s names for Scripture. More than that, “the fear of the Lord” signifies the sum of man’s response to God’s Word—worship. Fear is another word for worship.
The Bible, unlike any other book, endures forever. It is relevant in every generation. Though it is an ancient document, it never needs revision. It has been translated into modern languages, but for two millennia it has remained the same in content. Its teachings are never out of date. It speaks to us as pointedly and authoritatively as it ever did to any generation.
Human philosophies come in and out of style, being constantly replaced. Every field of science known to man is in a constant state of flux: changing, growing, discarding one maxim and replacing it with another. But the one thing that never changes is the eternal Word of God.
It Is True and Righteous Altogether. Finally David exclaimed, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (verse 9). What a bold statement that is! God’s Word is true. It’s hard today to find anything we can count on for truth. The media, politicians, and even some preachers have a reputation for lacking credibility. In fact, we take it for granted that they regularly distort the truth.
Franz Kafka, the gifted Czech-born writer who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century, used a parable to illustrate the futility of man’s search for truth. He described a bombed-out city of rubble where death and ruin were everywhere. People had been crushed under rocks, where they lay dying in agony. In the middle of this total holocaust, one solitary figure sits in a bathroom. Kafka called him the defiant fisherman. He is seated on a toilet seat with a fishing line dangling into a bathtub. There is no water in the tub, and obviously no fish, but the defiant fisherman keeps on fishing anyhow.
That, said Kafka, is what the search for truth is like. It is a worthless, futile pursuit of nonexistent meaning while the whole world is dying all around.
A hopeless picture, yes, and that is what it’s like to look for truth apart from the Bible. The natural man cannot find truth in the spiritual realm. He is spiritually dead and un-responsive to God. The only way he can find truth is if the spiritual realm invades the coffin that is his flesh.
That’s exactly what the Bible does! It is a supernatural revelation from God that invades the human heart with the sum of all spiritual truth that we need to know, and it produces righteousness.
THE BIBLE IS THE SOURCE OF GROWTH
Every Christian should want to grow in his relationship to God—to become more Christlike in character. We don’t want to be limited in our Christian experience. We want to grow and enjoy the fullness of spiritual life. But that can happen only through daily intake of God’s Word. The apostle Peter described the attitude we should have toward our growth through the Bible: “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
In the Greek, the term translated “long for” refers to an intense, recurring craving, the way babies crave milk. They don’t care if it’s from a bottle or directly from Mom, what color their room is, or even what time of day it is—they want milk and if they don’t get it soon enough, they scream and cry. Believers should have that same kind of single-minded craving for the Word of God.
Peter did not say “read the Bible,” or “study” it, or “meditate on it”; he said desire it. That’s what Paul called “the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). In effect, it produces an attitude in your heart that says, “I want the Word more than I want anything else.”
Our desire must be just as strong. Consider the passion for truth outlined in Proverbs:
My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. (2:1–6)
If you seek divine truth as earnestly as some people search after material riches, you will find it, because God has made it available.
Your heavenly Father wants you to grow—by obeying His commands. In the Bible He has given you the resource to know those commands. More than that, His Word is all you need to obey. I pray that your heart will burn for it.
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MacArthur, J. (2004). Welcome to the family : What to expect now that you’re a Christian (23). Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Books.