You Know More Bible Than You Think You Do

I teach a large group Bible study on Sunday nights at my church called Equip. The intended goal is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” (Eph. 4:12). We have a plethora of ages and backgrounds that come to this gathering every week.

For a solid hour, I teach on the topic at hand. It might be Hermeneutics, an Old Testament Survey, or the Attributes of God. Since I have a wide variety of students in the room, I try to make it as palatable as I can.

One night, I realized that I wasn’t breaking it down enough.

“In the New Testament, we see how the authors of the individual Gospels tell the same story but from a different angle…”

All of a sudden, I noticed a new guy at the back of the fellowship hall with his hand raised. It’s not as if that is forbidden, but it wasn’t typical.

“Uh, yes? Do you have a question?”

“Yeah, I have a question. Pastor Travis, you said ‘The New Testament.’ Does that mean there is an old one too?”

“Yes. Yes, it does. My bad for not covering that. Let me take a couple of steps back.”

Afterward, he approached me in gratitude for the class and apologized if he disturbed the flow. I thanked him for his question and said he could raise his hand anytime. He was a middle-aged man who was going through rehab. Part of his program landed him at our church for a few months.

As he left that night, he was so incredibly grateful because he learned a powerful truth: there is an Old Testament and a New Testament in the Bible.

Did you know that before reading this post? If so, then you were in the position to teach him.

What I took for granted, he saw as a gift.

If you knew that truth and consider it an obvious fact, you are actually a privileged individual. In an increasingly biblically illiterate society, you are ahead of the curve when it comes to biblical scholarship.

I often hear Christians bemoan the little amount of Bible that they actually know. While I wish I knew more now than I actually do, I think we sell ourselves short.

You know more Bible than you think you do, and you could teach more than you think you are able.

If you believe you should know more by now, then don’t whine about it, get to work. Paul told Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). He didn’t say to do someone else’s best, but he should do his best. Work at it. Improve in it. Handle it correctly.

And if you knew that there were two testaments, you might be more of a scholar than you think you are.

The information that you might take for granted might be a gift to another.

Learn it. Apply it. Share it.