What good is it to read, know, or be able to quote scripture if you cannot connect it to your life, or more importantly, to the lives of those you're talking to when you do quote it?
For the heck of it, let's answer a question I've heard all too often after citing a Bible verse, "That's great for God, but what's it got to do with me?" Why does the Bible even matter? How can a book written thousands of years ago have anything to do with you and me in this modern age of iPads and global connectivity?
Everything that was written in it was written to teach us, so that through studying Scripture, we might have hope.
What's the connection between us and the Bible? Why is it supposed to give us hope?
In two words, God's love.
The entire Bible shows us how much God loves us, and how it's our own actions that get in the way of receiving God's love. Because God is perfect--i.e. faultless, sinless, and all about justice to the wronged--God cannot let anyone who isn't just as perfect come near him.
It's not that we're bad people, it's that we've done bad things. We all have. Every time we've ever hurt another person, told a white lie, or been sexually attracted to a person other than our spouse, it's called sin.
But how is the Bible about God's love if he can't stand to be around anyone who has ever sinned?
He gave us a choice.
We have the option to stop sinning as much as we can and believe God loved us enough to send his own son to die in our place. Because his son was perfect also, he was able to defeat death and come back to life. Now, he stands between God's justice and those who are guilty of sin and condemned to die yet believe Jesus died so they wouldn't have to.
That's the connection. That's why we quote Scripture. That's why we read the Bible, so that we might be more able to stop sinning and share the good news with people, that they don't have to consign themselves to hopelessness and desperation.
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