Monday, November 25, 2024

The JOY of Firsthand Bible Study!

At the gym today, it occured to me that we humans communicate with each other either through a snapshot ...

... or a video. 

The New Testament authors did exactly the same thing!

There are two basic ways of describing an action in Greek. You can use a snapshot, or you can use a video, as it were. Phil. 1:21 is a classic example. Here Paul writes, "For to me, to live (video) is Christ and to die (snapshot) is gain." We could render the Greek here as follows: "For to me, to go on living is Christ and to die is gain." 

While reading Acts 4 this morning I noticed Luke's use of his video camera in verses 29 and 31. The basic idea in both of these verbs is "keep on doing" or "do habitually." 

You see, the apostles had been speaking the word of God fearlessly but had been warned by the authorities to stop what they were doing. Hence, in verse 29, the church prayed to the Lord, "Grant your servants great boldness to continue to speak your word." And in verse 31, their prayer was answered: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." 

I love that! 

Personal Bible study enables you to evaluate the words of Scripture. How exciting! I can assure you, there is no joy comparable to the joy that comes from a firsthand study of the Bible. To discover for yourself what God has written for us in his word will send you into the stratosphere with excitement. Unfortunately, sometimes these truths are missed in even our finest English translations. (Here the NIV writes simply "to speak" and "they spoke," completely missing Luke's use of his video camera!) 

I am never more excited than when one of my students comes up to me before class and says," Dr. Black, let me show you what I just discovered in this passage!" Sometimes students are beside themselves with enthusiasm. You never know what new wrinkle in the text you'll discover!

I hope you'll catch that disease as you get into your own habit of daily Bible study. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!