The Holy Spirit loves when you’re reading the Bible! While you’re reading, studying or listening to Scripture He is present, leading you into God’s truth as you’re encountering Jesus.
The Apostle Paul closes 2nd Corinthians (which is the fourth letter he wrote to them but only two withstood the test of time) saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” (2 Cor 13:14).
Within this Bible verse we see some incredible principles. Read it again.
And again.
Let this verse soak into you.
The Trinity At Work
Within this Bible verse we see the precious Trinity at work. We see the Father, the Son and the wonderful Holy Spirit. The Trinity is to be the model of relational community within Church. However, it tends to be that when some of us read this closing verse we tend to think individually. But this verse is showing that the corporate group, the church, may have the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit together.
Bible Study As Community Reflected by the Trinity
It is estimated that over 100 million Bibles are printed every year. And the Bible Society believes that 2.5 billion copies of the Bible were printed from 1815 to 1975. And now the YouVersion Bible app has had over 350 million installs on digital devices since 2008. Those are incredible numbers!
Most of us have a Bible or digital copy of it and can read it for ourselves. But in the Early Church, few copies of the apostolic letters and gospels were around. So they read the Bible aloud as a gathering and people memorized them together. And they would eat together, discussing and interpreting what was read to them as a community.
Just like the Trinity is a community, Bible study is to be a community endeavor. I personally love reading, listening and studying Scripture on my own. But we miss something if we’re not blending our faith community with the aid of the Holy Spirit in studying and interpreting. The Apostolic church were accomplishing this together in Acts 15 and we can do the same today having God, Scripture and our Community of faith. Just like they were reading, studying, discussing and interpreting Scripture together, in our Bible study we should consider what our leaders, church and affiliations believe.
If you’re doing a personal or group study of Scripture, you can ask the question, “How does my church community believe or practice what I read?” You can even relate historical events in your denomination or councils or creeds to what you’re studying. And you can talk to your leaders, small groups and others seeing if you agree or disagree with various understanding and interpretation. This is all done in a safe and loving atmosphere of community. If you don’t know how to begin Bible studying as I’ve mentioned, check out my resource the Spirit Empowered Journal in the US and UK.
Holy Spirit Empowerment
When studying personally or corporately, the precious Holy Spirit is with you. He is revealing the deep truths of God’s word to all of you while engaging your heart, mind and church community in your study. He loves to be empowering you with His anointing. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be upon all of you.
You may also like to read the first article in this ‘Reading the Bible with the Holy Spirit,’ series: Reading the Bible with the Holy Spirit as Your Companion
