What God Expects Us to Do with His Word

Summary

God has clear expectations for how believers handle His Word. Reading the Bible is only the starting point. Scripture calls Christians to study diligently, understand accurately, obey faithfully, and teach others. Jesus rebuked leaders who failed to know Scripture, and God warns believers against remaining spiritually immature. True faith works hard at God’s Word so it can be rightly understood, lived out, and passed on to others.

Others’ expectations shape our lives like the wind shapes dunes. My parents had no name for me when I was born. I was the second to arrive of the twins, and they didn’t know I was coming.

Living Under Expectations from Birth

As a young boy, many expectations governed my behavior at meals. For example, I was to eat everything served. “I don’t like this” was irrelevant. I didn’t have to like it. I just had to eat it.

As a teenager, I worked at a local orchard for three summers. The owner expected me to work from 7:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. with 30 minutes for lunch, Monday through Friday. On Saturday, we worked part of the day, bringing the total to 56 hours each week.

Numerous positions have job descriptions. They spell out what the employer expects. “Other duties as required” covers additional bases.

My father was the first and only college graduate in his family. He expected me to go to college. I never considered any other options. I went.

In college and seminary, a syllabus outlined the professors’ expectations of papers to write, along with the dates the papers were due. They penalized those who did not complete them on time.

My college speech teacher expected students to speak no longer than the assigned two minutes for one of his assignments. He abruptly stopped every student’s speech that exceeded that limit.

What God Expects Us to Do with His Word

God has expectations of us as well—a lot of them. Ten famous ones were written on stone tablets, but that isn’t where we are going. Let’s consider what God expects us to do with His word.

Reading the Bible Is Only the Beginning

The Bible is readily available in the USA and is affordable for almost everyone. I have no excuse for not reading it. You probably don’t either. But God expects more than reading a chapter daily to keep the devil away.

Work Hard to Understand and Explain the Truth

Paul wrote to Timothy (and us), “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 NLT).

God expects us to understand the Bible correctly and explain it to others. Teaching it accurately requires effort. Superficial reading won’t get the job done. Granted, no one fully understands the whole Bible. But we can pick the fish from the bones and feed it to others.

Maturity Means Moving Beyond Milk

God says through the writer to the Hebrews, “By now you should be teachers. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the first things you need to know from God’s Word. You still need milk instead of solid food” (Hebrews 5:12 NLT). God severely criticizes spiritually immature senior Christians.

Jesus Expected Scripture to Be Known

Jesus expected the Jewish religious leaders to know and obey the Old Testament. He frequently asked them, “Haven’t you read….”  For example, He said, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?” (Matthew 12:3 NLT).

He continued, “And haven’t you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:5 NLT).

 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female (Matthew 19:4 NLT).

“But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead” (Matthew 22:31-32 NLT).

He implies they should have recognized from the use of the present tense of the verb that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still in a relationship with God.

Jesus said, Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone’ (Mark 12:10).

So, what God expects us to do with His word includes reading, studying, understanding, remembering, obeying, and teaching it to others.

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