Doing and Knowing

“But Jesus said, * Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.’” — Luke ii. 28. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know.^* — John vii. 17.

Some time ago I received a letter from one who was evidently an earnest Christian, asking me for some hints to help him in Bible study. My first thought was to answer that there are so many addresses and booklets on the subject, that he would find all I could say, better said already. After a little while, certain experiences in my own immediate circle made me feel how needful instruction was on this all-important subject, and I found there were points to which it appeared desirable that special prominence should be given. I take up my pen with the earnest prayer and hope that what I write may be from God, the fountain of Light and Life, to help His young children to see how they may draw from His precious Word all that Divine instruction and nourishment, all that abundant joy and strength which He has there laid up for them.

I suppose myself addressing a young Christian who has said to me, — Help me to study my Bible. 45

Give me some rules to guide me as to how to begin, and how to go on, so that I may know my Bible well. The very first thing I have to. say to him, the thing that comes before all else, is this: — In your Bible study everything will depend upon the spirit in which you come to it, upon the Object or End you propose to yourself. In worldly things a man is ruled and urged on by the End or Aim he sets before himself. It is not otherwise with the Bible. If your aim be simply to know the Bible well, you will be disappointed. If you think that the thorough knowledge of the Bible will necessarily be a blessing, you are mistaken. To some it is a curse. To others it is powerless, it does not make them either holy or happy. To some it is a burden, it depresses them instead of quickening them or lifting them up.

And what ought then to be the Aim or End, the real disposition of the Bible student? God’s word is food, bread from heaven; the first need for Bible study is: — ^A Great Hunger After EiGHTEOusxESS, — a great desire to Do All God’s Will. The Bible is a light: the first condition to its enjoyment is — a Hearty Longing to Walk IN God’s Ways. Is not this what the texts I have placed above teach us? “Blessed are they that hear the word of God and Keep It’’ There is no blessedness in hearing or knowing God’s word apart from Ejeeping It. The word is nothing if it be not kept, obeyed, done. “If any man willeth TO Do His Will, he shall Know.” According to this saying of our Lord, all true knowledge of Gods word depends upon there being first THE Will to Do It. Is not this the very lesson we are enforcing. God will refuse to unlock the real meaning and blessing of His word to any but those Whose Will Is Definitely Set Upon-Doing It. I must read my Bible with one purpose —” Whatsoever He saith unto you, Do It.^’

Why this should be so, is easily ascertained when we think of what Words are meant for. They stand between the will and the deed. A man wills to do something for you; before he does it, he expresses his thought or purpose in words; then he fulfils the words by doing what he has promised. Even so with God. His words have their value from what He does. In creation His word was with power: He spake and it was done. In grace He does what He says. David prays (2 Samuel vii. 25) “Do as Thou hast Spoken.” Solomon says at the consecration of the temple — “Who hath with His hand Fulfilled that which He Spake with His Mouth”; “who hath Performed His word that He Spake”; “who hast Kjept that which Thou didst Promise; “who Spake It with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled with Thy hand”; “let Thy word be verified, which Thou hast spoken.” (2 Chron. vi. 4, 10, 15, 16.) In the prophets, God says, “I the Lord have spoken it; I Will Do It.’’ And they say,” What Thou hast spoken, Is Done.’’ The truth and the worth of what God promises consists in this, that He Does It. His word of promise is meant to be done.

This is no less true of His word of command, of things which He meant IJs to Do. If we do not do them, if we seek to know them, if we admire their beauty and praise their wisdom, but do not Do Them, we delude ourselves. They are meant To Be Done; it is only as we do them that their real meaning and blessing can be unfolded to us. It is only as we do them, that we really can grow in the Divine life. “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit unto Every Good Work (this first, then) and increasing in the Knowledge of God.^^ It is only when we approach God’s words with the same object which God had in view That They Should Be Done, that we can have any hope of blessing.

Is this not what we see all around us in the pursuit of knowledge, or in any branch of trade? The apprentice or pupil is expected to put the lessons he receives into practice; only then is he prepared for further teaching. And even so in the Christian life, Bible study is mere theory, a pleasing exercise of mind and imagination, worth little or nothing for a life of true holiness or Christlikeness, until the student be ready never to open or close his Bible without making God’s purpose His very own, and hearkening when He says — “Do All that I Speak.”

This was the mark of the saints of old. “So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken to him.’* “As the Lord had commanded Moses, so did he,” is the description of the man who as a servant was faithful in all his house. And of David we read: — “I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall do all my will,” In Psalm cxix. we hear him speaking with God about His word, and praying for Divine light and teaching, but ever accompanied by the vow of obedience, or some other expression of love and delight. It is the doing of God’s will, that even with God’s own Son, is the one secret of entrance into the favour and the mind of God.

I have just been reading Mr. Moody’s new book, “Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study.” I doubt not but many will avail themselves of the suggestions it contains. They will think rightly, what has helped a man like Mr. Moody, can help me too. And yet they may be disappointed. They must be, unless they bring to the Bible what- Mr. Moody brought: an” Honest Desire to Do Whatever He Saw God Wanted Him to Do. Young Christian! I beseech you by the mercies of God, when you ask God to lead you into the treasures of His word, into the palace where Christ dwells, do it as one who presents himself a living sacrifice, Ready to Do Whatever God Shall Speak. Do not think this a matter of course. It is of deeper importance than you know. This is more frequently absent from Bible study than you think. Seek for it with deep humility. The first need for enjoying your food is hunger. The first requirement for the Bible study is A Simple, Determined Longing to Find out What God Wants You to Do, and a Dead-in-earnest Kesolve to Do It. “If any man willeth to Do His Will, he shall know of the teaching” — to him the word of God will be opened up.