Here the Lord Jesus tells us how we are to read the Bible. We are not to read His holy Word from idle curiosity or as mere history or literature. We are to read it for the salvation of our souls and should therefore seek our blessed Savior in the Bible; for it was given us by God for the purpose of revealing to us the person, life, and work of His dear Son. Therefore "Seek thou Jesus and His light, Or thou wilt stay in sinful night" when reading the Bible.

Luther says: "Whoever, therefore, would read Scripture profitably, let him see to it that he seeks Jesus in it, and he will surely find life eternal. Again, when I do not study and read Moses and the prophets, the Scriptures, to learn that Christ has come from heaven for the sake of my and all men's salvation, that He became man, suffered, died, was buried, rose again, ascended into heaven, that I might have in Him reconciliation with God, forgiveness of all sins, grace, righteousness, and eternal life - all my reading in Scripture will avail me nothing for salvation."

Under popery, when the Bible was practically unknown, men could not read and study it. But now that it has been restored to us through the blessed Reformation and spread to all parts of the globe, no man can have any excuse for not reading, or searching, the Scriptures. If there be conceited men or women who declare that they can learn nothing more from the Bible because they have read and studied it from cover to cover, Luther gives them the advice to feel their ears and find out whether they have not grown a nice pair of long donkey ears. No mortal, and [even] if he live to be as old as Methuselah, will ever outgrow his need of the Bible, for he will never outgrow his need of the Savior. God make and keep us diligent and prayerful students of His holy Word!

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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