Arthur W. Pink

Consider the Word of God and seek to measure yourself by the degree in which you really honour it. What place do the contents of the Sacred Volume have in your affections, thoughts, and life: a higher one than formerly or not? Is that Divine communication more valued by you today than when you were first converted? Are you more fully assured of its divine inspiration, so that Satan himself could not make you doubt its authorship? Are you more solemnly impressed by its authority so that at times you tremble before it? Does the truth come with greater weight, so that your heart and conscience is more deeply impressed by it? Are more of its very words treasured up in your memory and frequently meditated upon? Are you really feeding on it: appropriating it to yourself, mixing faith therewith, and being nourished by it? Are you learning to make it your shield on which you catch and quench the fiery darts of the wicked? Are you like the Bereans (Acs 17:11), bringing to this infallible Scale and weighing therein all you read and hear?

Carefully bear in mind the purpose for which the Scriptures were given to us, the particular benefits they are designed to bestow. They are profitable for doctrine, and their doctrine is far more than a theological treatise addressed to the intellect, or a philosophical system which furnishes an explanation of man’s origin, constitution, and relation to God. It is the doctrine which is according to godliness (1Timothy 6:3), every part of which is designed to exalt God and abase man, according to Him his rightful place over us and our dependence upon and subjection to Him. It is profitable for reproof, to acquaint us with our innumerable faults and failures and to admonish us for the same. It is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12), probing into our innermost beings and condemning all within us which is impure. It is profitable for correction, to teach us what is right and pleasing unto God; and such is its potency that the more we are regulated by it the more are our souls renovated and purified. It is profitable for instruction in righteousness, for producing integrity of character and conduct. It is for the enlightening of our minds, the instruction of our consciences, the regulating of our wills.

Now, my reader, test yourself by those considerations, fairly and impartially. Are you finding the Scriptures increasingly profitable for the doctrine which is according to godliness? If so they are producing in you a deeper and more extensive piety. Are you more and more opening your hearts to their reproof , not confining yourself to those portions which comfort, and avoiding those parts which admonish and condemn you? If so, then you are cultivating closer dealings with God. Are you increasingly desirous of being corrected by their searching and holy teachings? If so, then you diligently endeavour to promptly put right whatever they show is wrong in you. Are they really instructing you in righteousness, so that you deportment is becoming in fuller conformity to their standard? If so, you are more shunned by worldlings and less esteemed by empty professors. Do you frequently examine yourself by God’s Word and test your experience by its teaching? If so, you are becoming more skilled in the Word of Righteousness (Hebrews 5:13) and more pleasing to it’s Author.

Extracted from Spiritual Growth, by Arthur W. Pink. From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.