Why Read the Bible?

“Blessed is the one…whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night” (Psalm 1:3).

Have you ever wondered why Christians ought read the Bible? Why is daily reading of the Bible so important for followers of Jesus?

Reading the Bible is only important if Jesus is important. There is no way to come to know Jesus apart from the Scriptures. If your information about who Jesus is comes from your feelings?…goodness. The only way we know who Jesus is through his word.

But, that’s not the reason why we read the Bible. We do not read the Bible for information. We read it for relationship, for fellowship.

Right information is very important. But we do not read the Bible for knowledge’s sake. We read it for relationship and fellowship with its author. How else are we supposed to have a relationship with Jesus? How do we expect Jesus to come and speak to us? In signs and wonders? Voices?

Jesus speaks to us through his word. So if we want to have a relationship and fellowship with Jesus, we do so through spending time in his word.

I love what A. W. Tozer wrote about reading the Bible:
My experience is to open up the Bible, get on my knees before this open Bible, and begin reading not in a race to finish, but in an attitude to receive. As I give God’s word priority in my life, he begins to honor that priority by unfolding to me what the word of God is all about.

Why read the Bible? Because that’s how we have a relationship with Jesus, and fellowship with him.