12. Resolved, If I take delight in it as a gratification of pride or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
This resolution goes head to head with the previous one. Its purpose is to help us check our motives for growing in our knowledge of God.
It is good that we delight in knowing God and Bible doctrines, but only when the things that lead us into such study are right. So, we should ask ourselves: what are really our motives to know God and Bible doctrines more broadly and more deeply? Is it because we want to boast before others or to ourselves that we understand better? Or do we just want to know more because it would be nice to understand something?
If pride or vanity or anything like that motivates our study, then we stop our study because it will not profit us nor give glory to God. Any study whose aim is not to help us grow in Biblical godliness is bound for failure.
This isn't to say that all Bible study, material or exposition should have an explicit application or study guide. It's OK if the application is implicit. It is far more important that we be confronted to ponder and then to will. Will we rather fix our eyes in Jesus or choose to look elsewhere?
May we see Christ more clearly through the daily fog we face
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)
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