Did you hear about the professor who invented a complicated but finely-tuned machine in his garage? The contraption was years in the making. Finally one day an inquisitive neighbor persuaded the inventor to let him peek at it. There it was—an enormous apparatus with gears and belts and flywheels and electronic components with their flashing lights and digital readouts. With a push of a button, the machine hummed into motion with seamless precision, all the moving parts operating together like a miniature galaxy. The neighbor was hypnotized by the synchronization of the parts, then he asked, “But what does it do?”

“What do you mean?” asked the professor.

“I mean, what does it do? What is it good for?”

“Oh,” said the scholar, “it doesn’t really do anything, but look how wonderfully it works.”

That’s a picture of much of today’s thinking. Scholars have elaborate theories, and we all have lots of opinions, but sometimes we never get around to application. We can accumulate information, explain ideas, and discuss data, but left unanswered is the question—so what?

Without application, any education—even training in the contents of the Bible—is useless. That’s why all the major professions include practicums for application. That’s why young physicians have internships at university hospitals before launching their careers, why educators begin as practice teachers, why pilots spend hours in the cockpit beside seasoned aviators before flying solo, and why ballplayers have coaches to drill them before the season starts.

Warnings to Heed

With Bible study, information without application is stagnation. James told his readers, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). He compared the Bible to a mirror. As we gaze into the Word of God, we see ourselves reflected in it. We see our blemishes and stains. We see how we need to beautify our lives in God’s sight. Perhaps we need to apply the salve of the Spirit, the highlighting graces of faith, or the corrective lines of obedience. Some people walk away from God’s mirror without making the needed changes. “But,” said James, “he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (verse 25).

This was also the theme of the Sermon on the Mount. Dismayed at the hypocrisy in His day, Jesus condemned the religionists who studied the Old Testament but never got around to applying its message. In His sermon in Matthew 5–7, Christ urged life-changing obedience to His words and concluded with the story of the two builders. One built a house on a rock, the other on sand. The first man’s house withstood the storm, but the house on the sand collapsed.

What was the difference? Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock…. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7: 24, 26, emphasis added).

Both men heard the words of Jesus. Both were in His audience that day, as it were, listening admiringly to His eloquence and wisdom. Both were Bible students who heard His words. But one put the truth into practice, while the other nodded politely and continued his life as usual. Their responses were as different as rock and sand. The lesson: It’s not enough just to be students of the Bible. We have to be disciples of the Lord, which means we study His Word with a determination to put it into practice, whatever the cost.

Questions to Ask

When we study the Bible, whether in a group or on our own, we should always consider what it says, what it means, and what it means for us. Don’t stop at satisfying your mental curiosity. Lots of people, for example, are fascinated by the study of the End Times, the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation, and the Second Coming of Christ. I often preach and write about these things, but I always stress that God hasn’t given prophecy just to satisfy our inquisitiveness but to spur us to holy living and evangelism. Our beliefs should regulate our behavior. Knowing Christ is coming tomorrow should affect the urgency of obedience today.

Here are some questions to pose to every passage you study in the Bible: Is there a commandment here I need to put into practice? Is there a promise I need to claim? An attitude to adopt? A prayer to echo? A habit I should begin? Is there a behavior I must change? Is there a sin to forsake? How can I be more Jesus-like because of my study of these verses?

When you ask yourself those questions while studying the Bible, the Lord will show you the answers. When you ask those questions while teaching the Bible, your listeners will come to realize the Bible wasn’t merely given to inform us but to transform us.

Lessons to Learn

This is one of the reasons the Bible is full of stories. As we work our way through God’s Word, we read about the dangers of lust, but in the story of David we see those principles come to life. We read about justification in Romans, but we see it actually happen in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. God has given us a multi-dimensioned book to teach us His truth and to show us the difference it makes when we obey or disobey it. The lives of Bible characters are laboratories in which the truths of the Bible are applied, as are our own lives.

Ethel Edison recalls learning to apply scriptural truth at age fifteen: “When I was teenager, my mother and I lived alone; she was divorced and we were very worldly people. I was already five-foot-eight and could pass for twenty-one. Mother and I would go on double dates with servicemen. The kids in high school rejected me because I didn’t date peers; I went with soldiers. Then through the ministry of a local church I became a Christian. A nearby lady who worked with Child Evangelism Fellowship told me I must learn 1 Corinthians 10:13. She emphasized the word must, knowing of my environment and lifestyle. I looked it up and thought it contained too many words and phrases to memorize. But I worked until I learned it: ‘No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.’

“The power of that verse kept me from the temptations I faced as a new Christian. My biggest worry was my boyfriend, a soldier in the army, and I didn’t know what to say to him. But that same week he was transferred and taken out of my life. The Lord was applying 1 Corinthians 10:13 to my experience, even as I was working to do my part in applying it.”

Ethel continued, “Three months later my mother was converted. Shortly afterward was New Year’s Eve, which had always been the biggest night in the year for us. This year we skipped the parties and went to church. When Mother got home, she realized she had not once thought about what she would have been doing in the world, and after that she had no doubt she was truly a Christian. God had given us both a way of escape.”

Ethel later became a career missionary in Africa. She had many occasions to put 1 Corinthians 10:13 into practice, along with the many other verses she learned.

Each page of the Bible is a discipleship manual telling us how to live. Every passage of Scripture has one correct interpretation but many applications. We can never exhaust the impact of a Bible verse, and it will never fail to improve our conduct as we put it into practice.

Bible study should be practical, applicable, and livable. Know what the Scriptures say, interpret God’s Word wisely, and put it into practice constantly, always asking yourself: What does it mean for today? What does it mean for me?