The Absolute Necessity of God’s Word For Living A Godly Life (III)

Having looked at the origin and intent of Scripture in the first and second articles of this four-part series on the Word of God, we are now ready in this third article to delve into the power or efficacy of the Word of God.

The premise of this piece is that the power of Scripture lies in its Giver, God Almighty, and our willingness to appropriate it and apply it to our varied situations and conditions of life. In the last article on the purpose of the Bible we made the following observations.

Let us see why the Word was inspired, recorded and handed down over the centuries. Any good reader should ask the following questions: “Is the material I am to read a serious piece intended to inform, challenge, and stimulate a reflection and perhaps a debate? Does it have any relevance and significance for me and my world? Is it for pure entertainment? Is the author qualified to write on the subject?” The Bible too should be subjected to such questions.

The primary purpose of Scriptures is not history, science, wisdom, philosophy or its aesthetic beauty, though it has some of all of these. The ultimate purpose of the Bible is to instruct for salvation and to train men and women and children in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:15-16):

“From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (Italics mine).
Salvation is rescue from a danger, death or whatever that diminishes the quality of life. The Bible is the surest guide to all of life. It contains all truth and has sufficient principles and examples to the full and abundant life that Jesus promises to all who believe and obey him.

It is a well-known fact the Bible has had a great influence on Western civilization and has helped to shape its education and culture. Middle Eastern history would be incomplete or impoverished without it. It is absolutely essential to the Christian religion and has saved and transformed the lives of millions over the years.

A Brazilian, Antonio Minas, was being pestered by a colleague to read the Bible. He eventually bought one with the avowed aim of going home to burn it. He got home and found the fire extinguished. He was so eager to burn the Bible that he rekindled fire. However, he had to open the Bible to make it easy to burn; he opened it to the Sermon on the Mount! Out of mere curiosity he glanced and began to read and read, forgetful of time, until it was morning. Finally he cried out, “I believe, I believe!”

In Sicily, a Bible seller was stopped by a bandit at gunpoint and ordered to burn all of his books. In obedience, he lit a fire and asked if he could read a few lines before burning each book. The bandit agreed. He read the 23rd psalm from the first book, the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37) from the second, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) from the third, the greatest chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13 from the fourth and so on. And at the end of each reading, the bandit would say, “Don’t burn that one; give it to me; it is a good book”. In the end, not a single book was burned; the bandit made off with all of the merchant’s Bibles! A few years later, both men met at an evangelistic meeting; the bandit had become an ordained minister!

A New York gangster had been released from prison and resolved to rejoin his colleagues to continue their lifestyle of crime. While waiting to reunite with his gang, he pocket-picked on Fifth Avenue and hid in a park to inspect his find; and to his disappointment, it was a New Testament Bible. He began to read as a way of killing time and got gripped by it and read for hours. Eventually, when his colleagues arrived, he told them what he had been reading and broke away from them and his life of crime!
The Bible works best for those who personally know and apply it.