Can Any Person Understand the Bible?

Can Any Person Understand the Bible?                January 9, 2022

“My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; if you seek wisdom as (one would) silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord, and discover the knowledge of God.  For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:1-6)

Do you believe the Bible can be understood by only certain people?  Have you been told this from childhood?

Well, if this is true then it would be quite a relief to many because then they wouldn’t have to be responsible for knowing what God expects of them.  They can leave that up to others to let them know.  But the problem with that kind of thinking is that one is totally trusting their salvation to another person’s understanding and interpretation of the scriptures.  What if they are wrong?  Try to picture a person standing before God at the Judgment and explaining that he’s justified before God because it wasn’t his fault that somebody else got it wrong and misunderstood the scriptures.  What do you think God would say to such a person?

The Bible is for everyone to read and to understand and for them to know and to discover the will of God.  Since one’s salvation depends on one knowing God, don’t you think one would want to know for themselves what God has to say to them?  Don’t you think they would want to open the Book of God to know His will for their own lives?

Satan wants to keep everyone out of the Bible because he knows that it is a light unto one’s path; a light that gives direction for mankind which will lead them to an eternity with their Creator (Psalms 119:105).  And if, perhaps, some do get into the word of God  then he uses false teachers to mislead them and teach them error (II Corinthians 11:12-15). 

Eternity is a long time.  It is a time without an ending.  Don’t you want to know for yourself what God has to say to you?  Yes, at times the Bible can be hard to understand (II Peter 3:14-18) but that doesn’t mean one can’t discover God’s will for their lives.  They just have to search for it continually like one does for hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:1-6). 

God is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) and He grants wisdom to all those who ask for it as long as they don’t doubt that He will give it to them (James 1:5-8).

Perhaps the question shouldn’t be “Can any person understand the Bible?” but rather “Do people today want to hear what God has to say to them?”  Many are only interested in what they want to hear and nothing more but I hope that your desire is to know God fully and be willing to spend much time in His holy word.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

“and that from childhood you (Timothy) have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (II Timothy 3:15)

Brian Thompson