John Gerstner once said that if you could be insulted you could not read the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person had no ability to read the words of the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person could not read the Bible with no benefit or that a person should not read the Bible. He was saying that the Bible is frank and straight. It speaks the worst things to human beings that can be said. It does take a humble soul to read the Bible if that person is going to take the Bible seriously and not try to avoid the meaning by turning and twisting things to avoid the brunt of what it says. It is hard for a proud soul to read about the glory of God as the central message in the Bible and then try to build up self with that, but many do that anyway. Humility is necessary for reading and understanding the Bible. Humility is necessary for a soul to be changed to be like Christ who was the most humble person in history.
Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
The Pharisees thought that the requirements of God had to do with the lists of hundreds of laws that they kept. Perhaps they twisted this verse to a different meaning, and Jesus did mention the heart of this verse to them at one point. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Mat 23:23). The scribes and Pharisees tithed from their gardens and yet did not practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. A proud person is ultimately quite unconcerned about justice for others, though he desires what he would call justice in one sense for self. A proud person can keep the external laws of God and be very stringent in keeping those laws, but the proud person will not truly be concerned with things like justice and mercy. The proud person can be part of carrying out things like public justice and public mercy in certain areas, but that will only be for show. The person is a very self-centered person and God knows that heart. Only the truly humble walk with God and so actually do justice and love kindness and mercy.
Isaiah 57:15 – “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Only the humble can walk with God. This is one of the basic and yet simple requirements in Scripture. Adam walked with God in the Garden. Enoch walked with God and then was taken. The disciples walked (literally) with the humble Jesus who taught them about humility in word and in life. In several places in the Gospels Jesus said that His words and the words of Scriptures were hidden to people. While He spoke in parables, Matthew 13:13 give us the words of Jesus on why He spoke in parables: “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Without totally denying the modern view that Jesus spoke in parables in order to have simply stories from daily life to make things plain, He says clearly that He spoke in parables to hide the truth as well. He would give these parables in His public teaching and then in private He would say what they meant.
Jesus absolutely blasted the religious elite of His day (time on earth) for their hard hearts and not understanding the Scripture. They were a proud group. They were proud of their academic training in Scripture and they were proud of their outward works. They were so proud that they prayed in order to be seen by men and that was the motive in all of their other religious works too. It takes a lot of pride to blind a soul to itself to where it will pray in order to be seen by men rather than the God who sees in private. The Pharisees were so proud that their whole religious life was one of pride and self, but their pride blinded them to that. They memorized Scripture in order to wear a show of that on their garments. They were truly a group of self-centered and proud people .
All that the Pharisees did was for self. All that the Pharisees did was from pride and that pride blinded them. Their knowledge indeed puffed them up with self. When they studied the Bible it was not from love for God and so that they could know God and be conformed to His likeness. Instead, out of pride they studied the Bible for the purposes and ways of self. Apart from humility all people are like the Pharisees. We study to show ourselves approved and knowledgeable to men. We study in order to obtain honor from men or perhaps to think well of ourselves. Humility is absolutely necessary to read the Bible so that we will be changed instead of change it.
God Loves... Himself 
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