Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. Deuteronomy 8:3b
This is the first part of a two-part guest post from Cameron Braidwood. This first part focuses on the importance of the Word of God, in the form of the written Word, to the life of the believer. Part 2 then shifts to answer common questions about what to look for in a Bible, in the hopes of giving believers a simple guide to choosing a new edition of God’s Word.
The above scripture is echoed by our Lord Jesus in the book of Matthew when He quoted from the Old Testament in response to temptation from Satan in the wilderness. The consumption of God’s word is as vitally important to our spiritual life as the consumption of bread is to our bodies.
We may not always consider this, but it is the inescapable meaning of our Lord’s words. Scripture is replete with passages that speak of the life-giving and treasurable nature of God’s word.
The Psalmist describes the word (law) of God as ‘perfect, converting the soul’ (Psalm 19:7).
In Paul’s second epistle to Timothy we are informed that it [God’s word] is profitable for ‘doctrine’, ‘reproof’, ‘correction’ and ‘instruction in righteousness’ (2 Tim 3:16).
Elsewhere in his epistle to the Romans, Paul outlines the crucial link between scripture and faith: “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).
Throughout the book of Psalms there are many descriptions and comparisons used to convey the nature of God’s word; often referred to in other terms such as ‘law’, ‘statutes’, 'judgements’, ‘testimonies’ and ‘precepts’.
Also in Psalm 19, King David describes God’s word as even sweeter than ‘honey’ and the ‘honeycomb’ (v10) as well as more desirable than ‘much fine gold’ (v10).
The biblical evidence is overwhelming - the written Word of God is crucial to our lives as believers. It is so critical, in fact, that its worth almost cannot be estimated.
It’s worth pondering the inspired example. Have we ever considered the value of the Bible as even greater than a large quantity of the purest gold? It seems near impossible to overstate the necessity of scripture to spiritual life and growth.
In earlier eras of church history, the people of God had little access directly to the Word of God. To put it into our own context, there would have been no Bible in the native tongue of the inhabitants of Dun Breaton, the fortress for which our own town of Dumbarton is named. Access to the written Word came through priests and teachers, who largely worked in Latin or the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew.
A push began in the latter middles ages and accelerated with the Reformation to put the Bible in the vernacular - the common tongue of the people. In the English-speaking world, the crowning achievement of that movement was the Authorised Version of the Bible, also known as the King James Version.
But the movement didn’t end there. The number of modern English translations of the Bible has proliferated in recent years. There are a vast variety of versions in multiple formats and bindings available to us. We may rightly say that we are exceedingly blessed with such variety; we might also note how blessed we are to have God’s word translated into our native tongue at all.
Having the Word of God accessible in our own language is a direct testimony to God’s grace to us. May the kingdom-furthering work of Bible translation into other languages continue for the eternal good of man and the glory of God!