Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
—Matthew 11:29
All Bible study, in order to be fruitful, should be learning of Christ. The Bible is the schoolbook, and Christ is the teacher. It is He who opens the understanding, the heart, and the seals. (See Luke 24:45; Acts 16:14; Revelation 5:9.) He is the living eternal Word, the written words are the human expression. Christ’s presence and teaching are the secret of all true Bible study. The written Word is powerless, except as it brings us to the living Word.
No one has ever thought of accusing our Lord of not honoring the Old Testament. In His own life He proved that He loved it because it came out of the mouth of God. He always pointed the Jews to it as the revelation of God and the witness to Himself. But with the disciples, it is remarkable how frequently He spoke of His own teaching as what they most needed and had to obey.
The Jews had their self‑made interpretation of the Word, and made it the greatest barrier between themselves and Him of whom it spoke. Christians often do this, too. Our human understanding of Scripture, fortified by the authority of the church or our own denomination, becomes the greatest hindrance to Christ’s teachings. Christ the living Word seeks first to find His place in our hearts and lives, to be our only Teacher. From Him we will learn to honor and understand Scripture.
“Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” Our Lord gives us the secret of His own inner life that He brought down to us from heaven. This secret that He wants us to learn from Him is found in the words, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” It is the one virtue that makes Him the Lamb of God, our suffering Redeemer, our heavenly Teacher and Leader. It is the one attitude that He asks us to learn from Him—out of this all else will come.
For Bible study and our entire Christian lives, this is the one condition we need to truly learn of Christ. He, the Teacher, meek and lowly in heart, wants to make you what He is, because that is salvation. As a learner you must come and study and believe in Him, the meek and lowly One. You must seek to learn of Him how to be meek and lowly, too.