Students will study many subjects throughout their lives, both inside and outside of school. While in school, students will study English, science, history, psychology, foreign languages and different levels of math among many other subjects. Students will also study for their extracurricular activities like the sports and instruments they play, the lines in the script or topics for a debate. Studying for those subjects is a vital part of their academic lives, but they are not as important as studying the Word of God.
The Word of God is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16)
It is the things God has said, It is God revealing himself to us. The Bible is what God has to say about Himself and life. When we meet someone and want to show them who we are, we reveal ourselves through our words. The old colloquialism is true, don’t judge a book by it cover—read the words within the covers before passing judgment. We are only able to get to know someone to a certain extent if we don’t use words. Words disclose our thoughts, intentions, and character. Those are all things that our students will learn about God when they study the Word. Our students cannot know God without knowing his Word. John 1:1 shows us that the Word is identified with God, it is God—they are one in the same. You cannot know one with knowing the other. Richard Mayhue asserts “In Scripture, the person of God and the Word of God are everywhere, interrelated so much so that whatever is true about the character of God is true about the nature of God’s Word”. When our students study the Word of God, it helps them know God better and gain a high view of Him. What a student thinks about the Word of God reflects what a student thinks about God.
The word of God is foundational and essential because it is the only true source for all Christian truth.
There are plenty of great books written by capable authors about God but there is no book greater or more important than the Holy Bible. There is definitely no author who knows God better than himself. It is important for students to study the Word of God because it is our spiritual GPS for living a faithful Christian life. The Word of God tells us the do’s and the don’ts of life; it gives us the rules that we must follow, but most importantly, it is the gospel: the good news of Jesus Christ. They will not find nothing more influential in their entire lives than the Word of God.
The Word of God is what Jesus preached and what the apostles taught. Jesus and the apostles based the entirety of Christian doctrine on the Bible. Over 2,500 times in the Old Testament, the Bible affirms that God spoke what is “written” within its pages (Joshua 3:9, Isaiah 34:16). The phrase “Word of God” appears over 40 times in the New Testament. When students study the word of God they will see how important it is to study the Word for themselves. Hebrew 4:11-13 tells us that the Word of God dissects and diagnoses the needs of the heart and points us to a solution. Paul, in 2 Timothy 2:15, wants us to know a critical part of life is our handling and understanding of the Bible. Psalms 119:9 shows us that if a young person lives their life according to the Word of God, they will keep their way pure.
The word of God is without mistake, it is perfect.
It is truly infallible. It is easy to follow what is going on in the world—all we have to do it turn on the T.V. or log on to social media. It is easy to “like, follow and subscribe” across multiple social media platforms in order to get to know celebrities. All of those outlets help to shape our students worldview. My prayer for our students is for them to develop a biblical worldview but that is impossible without studying the Word of God.
The following post was written by Royland Kirkwood. Roy serves as an elder and the student pastor for Shiloh Church in Jacksonville, FL and has 12 years of student ministry experience.