Our Bibles Are Not Antiques

I was in a Christian bookstore last weekend to purchase a concert ticket and I was noticing how many different types of Bibles there were available for purchase in the store; study bibles, devotional bibles, parallel bibles, children's bibles, and numerous translations. Next to the Bibles were the numerous ways to cover your bible, whether by fabric or by leather, zipper case or not.

It got me thinking about a few things--for starters, how many bibles I had in my house (close to six, I think). In addition, looking at the casings in the store, I thought that oftentimes we treat the physical Bible itself as an antique rather than something to be used. We don't mark it up or highlight in it, because it's the Word of God, after all! We put it back in its casing and are very careful to open and close it, because we wouldn't want to damage it--but have you ever seen the Christian with the Bible whose cover is worn and the pages marked up like it was a college textbook? That's how we ought to use it, for as Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:16, all Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for training in righteousness."

Now, notice the picture to the above right--it is an old Bible and not one that was preserved in glass or in pristine condition. Or this picture, which shows a Bible that has clearly been used.

When my wife and I got married, my dad gave us a table that had been in his family for a long time--it was a table that my parents and I used as a computer table while I was still living at home, but when it was given to us, it became our dining table. Now, we could have put it over in the corner and treated it as an antique, but we were given it so that we could use it.

So before you are quick to be overprotective of your copy of God's Word (notice that I'm not saying you should toss it around like you don't care about it), remember that it's been given to you by God for use and for your benefit.