Who Was the Bible Written For?
Romans 14:10-12 (ESV) (Please read the whole chapter)
10. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11. for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
It is a biblical fact that all Christians will appear before the judgment seat of Jesus. We will stand there to be given our rewards that we have earned while we live on this earth. We will not be judged for rather we go to heaven or hell, we are already going to heaven. Since we know that Jesus is going to judge us, shouldn’t we be figuring out what we need to do, that we might be pleasing Him. The only way to do that is by knowing God’s word and doing it individually.
This I believe, is what all Christians should do when reading the Bible or hearing our preachers teach it. We should have this attitude “God wrote this to me so that I might please Him not for anyone else, but for me”. If every Christian had this attitude, we would not read or hear it and look at someone else and say “this is for you”.
The Bible is God’s love letters to the human race. We humans have a big problem. That problem is always trying to tell others what the Bible says, so they will line up with what we have seen God is telling us to do. But it is incumbent upon us to read the word of God for our learning, not others. God wrote it for each individual person ever born in this world. That’s how much He loves us, that He would give us His word individually. Every person learns at their own pace, so it’s not your job to tell them.
In my Christian walk of over 50 years I have seen Christians use the Bible in a number of different ways. But the worst way of all that I have seen, is to read something in the Bible and look at someone else and “say you need to do this”. It’s not for you to look at someone else and tell them how they should live their lives. When God wants them to know what you have seen, don’t you think that He can tell them? If God showed you then it’s obvious there’s something that you need to do, not someone else.
The Holy Spirit will teach us, and lead us, and guide us, individually and He is very good at that. Jesus says in John;
John !6:13 (ESV) (Please read the whole chapter)
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will guide you, not others. Is that how you approach the word of God? Please don’t try to brow beat someone else with something that the Holy Spirit has shown you. It doesn’t work that way.
Quite often I have seen husbands or wives use the Bible to try and brow beat their wives or husbands into following what they think the Bible says. That’s just plain wrong. You pray for them and see what God does. You take the word of God into your life and do it, and the Holy Spirit will take care of your wife or husband.
There is so much more that can be said on this topic, but the idea is for you to take God’s word for yourself and you alone. If everyone that “names the name of Jesus” would do this, the Church would be more like Him every day.