Most people who say they’re Christians don’t actually read the Bible. They may go to church, they might listen to sermons, maybe they watch YouTube videos, and they fill their lives with Christian content, but they rarely open the Bible for themselves. If that’s you, I want you to think seriously about something. What if you’re missing the most important thing God has ever given you and you don’t even realize it? The truth is, no other book does what the Bible does, and if you’re not reading it, you are missing something you cannot get anywhere else. Not from me, not from your preacher, not from your favorite podcast or influencer. Speaking of, in this study, I will reference or quote several passages of Scripture (including many in the footnotes). I encourage you to open your Bible and read them in context for yourself. Don’t take my word for it. Go see what the Bible actually says.
So the question is simple: what exactly are you missing if you don’t read the Bible?
First, you’re missing knowing God.
There are countless opinions about God in the world today. People write books, record sermons, and post videos trying to explain who God is. But the Bible is not just another human attempt to describe Him. It is God speaking for Himself. In 2 Timothy 3:16, we are told that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” (Now, if you’re not fully ready to accept the Bible as God’s word, we have a playlist linked below that can help you explore that subject. We’re all at different points on our journey.) When you open the Bible, you are not just reading information; you are being introduced to the Creator. It is as if God is reaching out His hand and saying, “This is who I am.” He tells us that He exists, that He created the heavens and the earth, and that His power is clearly seen in what He has made.1 He tells us that He is holy, completely pure and set apart from sin.2 At the same time, He tells us something difficult about us: we are not holy.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
That matters because God also says in the Bible that He is just. He always does what is right, including making sure the guilty do not go free. A few chapters later, the Bible says:
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
God does not overlook sin or pretend it doesn’t matter. But that is not the end of the story, because the same Bible reveals that God is merciful. He loved us enough to send Jesus to take our place, to die for our sins, to be buried, and to rise again. A moment ago, we saw the first part of Romans 6:23. The entire verse says:
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We can discover that truth only because God chose to reveal it in His word. If you are not reading the Bible, you are not really letting God speak for Himself.
Second, you’re missing knowing yourself.
Many people today are wrestling with questions of identity and purpose. They wonder who they are, whether they matter, and why they feel like they do not belong. They search for answers in relationships, achievements, and distractions, but rarely in Scripture. And I’ll be honest with you. This isn’t just something I’ve seen in other people. This is something I’ve struggled with myself. For a long time, I’ve wrestled with feeling like I wasn’t enough, like I didn’t really belong anywhere. In college, I was even diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and when those feelings hit, my instinct wasn’t to go to God. It was to distract myself. I would turn to anything that could take my mind off what I was feeling, instead of actually dealing with it. The problem was, I was looking for answers about who I am in all the wrong places and then wondering why I still felt empty. Yet the Bible was trying to tell me something all along. If only I had paid attention by opening Scripture.
O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
Psalm 139:1–3, 13–14
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thoughts afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways. …
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
Genesis 1 goes even further and says that you were made in the image of God. Nothing else in creation shares that distinction. You are not random, and you are not insignificant. You matter because you bear His image. And the Bible does not stop there. It shows your value even more clearly in what God was willing to do for you.
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Jesus did not die for an abstract idea; He died for people, for individuals, for you.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
If you have ever felt like you do not matter, the cross says otherwise. The only reason you can know that with certainty is because God revealed it in Scripture.
Third, you’re missing what God has done for you.
It is not uncommon to hear someone say, “I know people say God loves me, but what has He actually done for me?” The Bible answers that question in ways we often overlook. Every breath you take is a gift from Him. The apostle Paul went to Athens, a city in the first century constantly looking for purpose in life. He said to them about God:
He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:25–28
The food you eat, the water you drink, and the clothes you wear are all part of His provision.3 Jesus explained that God cares even for the birds and the flowers, and you are more valuable than they are. Beyond those physical blessings, God provides emotional and spiritual blessings that cannot be found anywhere else. He is described as the God of all comfort, the one who gives peace that surpasses understanding, joy that is not dependent on circumstances, and a living hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus.4 And above all of that, He offers eternal life.
However, the Bible is also clear that not everyone will receive that gift, which leads us to:
Finally, you’re missing what God expects from you.
Jesus said:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
Matthew 7:21–23
It matters whether you actually follow Him, and you cannot know what that looks like unless you read what He has said.
If God created you, loves you, and sent His Son to die for you, it only makes sense that He would tell you how to respond. He has done exactly that in the Bible. In God’s word, He teaches us what we must do. We cannot learn that from culture or from people. It is only God and His word that we can trust to tell us what we must do. The Bible teaches that you must repent, which means turning away from sin and turning toward God with your whole life.5 It teaches that you must love others, not just in what you say but in how you act, by showing kindness, forgiveness, and generosity.6 And it clearly explains how you are saved. When people in the Bible asked what they needed to do to be saved, they were told to believe in Jesus, but belief was never presented as a mere acknowledgment. Belief is not just mental assent. In the Bible, it is always connected to obedience.7 Jesus said:
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16:16
Scripture consistently teaches that in baptism, your sins are washed away and you are united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.8
This leads to something that needs to be said plainly. If you are not reading the Bible for yourself, you are trusting someone else to tell you what God said, and that is dangerous. Even this channel should not be a substitute for Scripture. In Acts 17:11, the Bereans were called fair- and noble-minded. Notice what God says about them:
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
Acts 17:11
Can the same be said about you? Don’t simply listen and accept; examine and confirm. If someone were teaching something false, would you know? If your understanding of God were off, would you be able to recognize it? If you are not reading the Bible, the answer is no. You are depending on someone else to do what God has called you to do, and in the process, you are missing a treasure that was given to you personally.
So what are you missing if you are not reading the Bible? You are missing knowing God, knowing who you are, understanding what God has done for you, and learning what God expects from you. No other book can give you that information. The question now is what you are going to do about it? If you have been coasting, relying on others, or identifying as a Christian without actually opening God’s word, it is time to change that. Open your Bible, read it, and let God speak for Himself.
If you are ready to go deeper, if you want help understanding what you are reading, or if you are realizing that you need to make things right with the Lord and be born again, we want to help you take that next step. You can go to this page to request a free personal Bible study with us. It would be a joy to help you truly know God, and that begins with studying His word.
And if you are ready to truly dig into God’s word, check out this study that is a beginner’s guide to Bible study. Don’t feel like a beginner? Check out this study on how to take your study even further.
- Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:19–20 ↩︎
- Leviticus 11:45; Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:14–16 ↩︎
- Matthew 6:25–34 ↩︎
- 2 Corinthians 1:3–5; Philippians 4:4–7; 1 Peter 1:3–4 ↩︎
- Acts 2:38; Acts 17:30–31 ↩︎
- 1 Timothy 6:11; 1 John 3:16–18; Colossians 3:12–14 ↩︎
- John 3:36; Hebrews 3:18-19; Hebrews 5:8–9; James 2:14–26 ↩︎
- Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:1–7; Galatians 3:26–27; 1 Peter 3:21 ↩︎