DO YOU LOVE YOUR BIBLE?
By J. C. Ryle
Reader, love of the word of God is one great mark of a true Christian. Give me leave to ask whether you know anything of this love. Is the Bible sweet and refreshing to your soul? Do you love your Bible? There never was a man or woman converted, from one end of the world to the other, who did not love the revealed will of God. Just as a child born into the world desires naturally the milk provided for its nourishment, so does a soul born again desire the sincere milk of the word. This is a common mark of all the children of God—they “delight in the law of the Lord.” How is it with you? Show me a person who despises reading, or thinks little of Bible preaching, and I hold it to be a certain fact he is not born again. He may be zealous about forms and ceremonies. He may be diligent in attending daily services. But if these things are more precious to him than the Bible, I cannot think he is a converted man. Tell me what the Bible is to man, and I will generally tell you what he is. This is the pulse to try, this is the barometer to look at, if we would know the state of the heart. I have no notion of the Spirit dwelling in a man, and not giving clear evidence of his presence. And I believe it to be a signal evidence of the Spirit's presence when the word is really precious to a man's soul. When there is no appetite for the truths of Scripture, the soul cannot be in a state of health. There is some serious disease. Reader, what is the Bible to you? Is it your guide, your counselor, your friend? Is it your rule of faith and practice? Is it your measure of truth and error, of right and wrong? It ought to be so. It was given for this purpose. If it is not, do you really love your Bible?—J. C. Ryle.