Where In The Bible Will I Find:

How We Show Appreciation For God's Word?

Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, often used language which was far from being chaste. He apparently had great difficulty controlling his temper. He taught the doctrine of faith only, grace only and others - which were contrary to the inspired Word of God.

Yet virtually every Bible student in the world owes Martin Luther a great debt of gratitude. After Luther had completed his doctor's degree and was teaching theology at the University of Wittenburg in Germany, he happened to find a copy of the Bible in the library at the University. He had seen and heard short excerpts from the gospel records - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - but he had never seen or held in his hands a complete copy of the Bible.

His reaction was revealing. He said, "If I could only have this Bible, I would seek no other treasure." He determined he would devote his life to making the Bible available to the common man. He translated the Bible into the German language and set the stage for the Bible to be made available in hundreds of other languages - English, French, Spanish, etc.

Prior to Luther's translating the Bible into German, only the Roman Catholic Church had complete copies of the Bible. Those copies were in Latin and were not available to the uneducated. The average man knew only what the priest or the bishop taught him. That was one of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church had such total control over the lives of the people in the Middle Ages.

What a difference the work of men like Luther and John Wycliffe has made in the lives of millions of people around the world. We can now study our Bibles to see whether or not what the preacher is saying is the truth (Acts 17:11). Now that the Bible is in our hands, what are we doing with it? Are we taking advantage of having Bibles in our homes and in our offices? Do we really appreciate the great honor and privilege of having Bibles of our own?

If we truly are grateful to Martin Luther and other Bible translators and to God Almighty for providing the Bible in the first place, surely we will devote many hours to an intense study of God's Holy Book. Having the Bible in our own language is of no particular value unless we read it, study it and meditate on its message. Not only that, we must also make an effort to teach our children, other family members and our neighbors what the Word of God says.

There is no greater way of showing gratitude to God and to the men who translated the Word of God than by loving and OBEYING the precepts and commandments contained in the Bible. "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psm. 119:97).