Why Study of Scriptures is Important

Why is the serious and careful study of Scripture important? Why ought we to expound so much effort instead of simply reading? And if we do the serious and careful study, why isn’t that enough? Consider the following life-shaping quotes from John Piper.

An evangelical believes that God humbled himself not only in the incarnation of the Son, but also in the inspiration of the Scriptures. The manger and the cross were not sensational. Neither are grammar and syntax. But that is how God chose to reveal himself. A poor Jewish peasant and a prepositional phrase have this in common, they are both human and both ordinary. That the poor peasant was God and the prepositional phrase is the Word of God does not change this fact. Therefore, if God humbled himself to take on human flesh and to speak human language, woe to us if we arrogantly presume to ignore the humanity of Christ and the grammar of Scripture.

The Scriptures aim to affect our hearts and change the way we feel about God and his will. The exegete, who believes that this aim is the aim of the living God for our day, cannot be content with merely uncovering what the Scriptures originally meant… It is the will of God that his Word crush feelings of arrogance and self-reliance and that it give hope to the poor in spirit.