Have You Read It?

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. —1 Timothy 4:13

The Gospels record several instances where Jesus turned to His critics and said, “Haven’t you read in the Law . . . ?” (Matt. 12:5; 21:42). He expected them to have read and applied Scripture, and when they needed to be corrected, He sent them right back to the Word of God.

It was while the Ethiopian official was reading the book of Isaiah that his eyes were opened to salvation (Acts 8:27–39).

When Paul sent his divinely inspired letter to the church at Colossae, he wanted to be sure that believers read not only that letter, but also the one he had sent to the believers in Laodicea (Col. 4:16).

Oswald Chambers emphasized: “The mere reading of the Word of God has power to communicate the life of God to us mentally, morally, and spiritually. God makes the words of the Bible a sacrament, i.e., the means whereby we partake of His life.” ² 

² Oswald Chambers, Approved Unto God, (Grand Rapids, MI;