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Top 6 Bible Verses About Reading The Bible With Commentary

Top 6 Bible Verses About Reading The Bible With Commentary

Last updated on: October 10, 2015 at 1:57 pm by Jack Wellman

Top 6 Bible Verses About Reading The Bible With Commentary 2015-10-10T13:57:54-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Here is my top six Bible verses about reading the Word of God, the Bible, followed by a personal commentary.

First Timothy 4:13 “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

Paul admonished Timothy to keep reading the Scriptures publically because it can exhort the people of God and it can teach the people of God to become more like Jesus the Son of God. If the Word of God is not being read at church then the church cannot be exhorted or learn from God. Human reasoning or teaching has no eternal value therefore public reading of the Bible should be the primary focus from behind the pulpit, the Sunday school teacher, and any other Bible study that you and I attend. Expository, verse by verse Bible preaching and reading unleashes the power found in God’s Word and it also allows the Scriptures to be taught within the context of the whole chapter and sometimes the whole book.

Acts 8:32 “Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.”

Apparently, an angel of God told Phillip to “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place” (Acts 8:26) to help an “Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship” (Acts 8:27). The seed of God’s Word had already been planted and later, would come a bountiful harvest.

Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

Many people avoid reading the Book of Revelation because it is so complex and so enigmatic that they haven’t a clue about a lot of what’s written in it. Even Bible scholars struggle with some of the symbolism in this book but if we avoid reading this book, we avoid a blessing from God because He declares, that “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy.” Notice that it’s not only the reading of these words but the reading aloud of these words so reading, hearing, and keeping these words ensures the reader will be blessed.

Matthew 21:42 “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

Jesus, in a mild rebuke to the religious leaders, asked them if they hadn’t read the Scripture from the psalmist (Psalm 118:22) and the Book of Isaiah (28:16). They should have seen it but they willingly suppressed this knowledge. Jesus rebuked them; “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40) so they refused to submit to Christ, even though the Scriptures clearly revealed Jesus as the fulfillment of the Messiah.

Nehemiah 8:8 “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”

This is from Nehemiah chapter eight where Ezra read out of the Law but the Jews considered the Scriptures as both the Law and the Prophets. During the reading of the word (the Scriptures), they all typically stood up because of the reverence they had for God’s Word. Such was the case when Ezra read the Law out loud (Neh 8).

Acts 8:30 “So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading.”

This is the continuation of Phillip’s being sent into the desert to help the Ethiopian Eunuch when “the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot” (Acts 8:29) which is when Phillip asked if the Eunuch understood what he was reading. When he said that he didn’t, then Phillip helped him identify Who this prophecy was written about and that of course was Jesus Christ (Acts 8:32-33) and as a result the Eunuch was saved (Acts 8:35) and then baptized (Acts 8:36-39) at which time, Phillip was immediately caught up by God and “found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea” (Acts 8:4) continuing to preach the Scriptures so that others would be saved.

Conclusion

It takes the Word of God spoken by a man or woman of God mixed with the Spirit of God to make children of God and all for the glory of God. Think of these things; the religious leaders in Jesus’ day had read the Bible but did they allow the Bible to read them? They went through the Scriptures but did the Scriptures go through them? They examined the Scriptures but did the Scriptures examine them? We can go through the Bible but the Bible must go through us or it is of no more use than reading a newspaper. The Word of God has the very power of salvation in it (Rom 1:16) and God declares “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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