Q. May all men make use of the Scriptures?
A. All men are not only permitted but commanded and exhorted to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures.
Commentary
This brief but powerful answer strikes at the heart of a dangerous error that has plagued the church at various points in history: the notion that ordinary people should be kept from the Scriptures and that only a clerical class may handle and interpret God’s Word. The catechism flatly rejects this idea. The Bible belongs to the people of God and, indeed, to all mankind. It is not the private possession of scholars, clergy, or any ecclesiastical hierarchy. Every person, regardless of age, station, or education, is not merely permitted but commanded and exhorted to engage with the Word of God.
The threefold duty to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures covers the full range of how believers interact with the Bible. Reading encompasses the private, personal study of God’s Word in the home (private and family worship). Hearing points to the public ministry of the Word, where the Scriptures are read aloud and preached in the gathered assembly, as has been the practice of God’s people since Moses commanded the law to be read before all Israel. Understanding reminds us that engagement with Scripture is not merely mechanical or ritualistic; we are to labor to comprehend what God has said, seeking the illumination of the Spirit as we study. The Ethiopian eunuch was reading the prophet Isaiah when Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30). The question was meant to help him come to the very understanding that God’s Word demands of all its readers.
The Bereans are the great model of this duty fulfilled. Luke commends them as more noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the apostolic preaching with eagerness and then searched the Scriptures daily to test what they had been told. Hearing the Word preached does not replace personal examination of the text; rather, the two work together. Christians who sit under faithful preaching and also diligently study the Word for themselves are best equipped to grow in grace and guard against error. This question is a call to every believer to take up the sacred Scriptures with reverence, diligence, and expectation.
Scripture Proofs
“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them’” (Luke 16:29).
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39).
“And he was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’” (Acts 8:28–30).
“Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
1.7: All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.