Sadly, it has been believed by some Christians that information alone will result in transformation. But the entire point of study is to repent of what grieves the Lord and to be increasingly transformed to be more and more like Jesus. Simply, information must lead to transformation or we have nothing but head knowledge; this is what Paul called the kind of knowledge that “puffs up” with pride rather than increasing our humility and reliance on Jesus.

Jesus told us to obey.

Jesus foresaw this potential problem, and some of His last directives to us include not just teaching people, but teaching them to obey His Word. In Matthew 28:19–20, Jesus says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.

Not only study, but obedience

Elsewhere in Scripture we are told that we should not only study Scripture, but also obey what we learn from it. Speaking of this, Jesus said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28).

In using the word “obedience” I am assuming that there will be some degree of resistance in you because that word has negative connotations for many people. But Jesus repeatedly connects loving Him with obeying Him (e.g., John 14:15, 21, 23–24). In fact, Jesus is emphatic that obedience to Him will flow out of our love for Him. What this does not mean is that we must obey Jesus so that He will love us. Rather, He has loved us by grace apart from anything we have done and as a result we trust Him, which is the essence of faith. It is because Jesus is perfectly good and loves us that we should logically obey Him if we claim to love Him, as evidence of our trust in Him. If we really believe that Jesus is wiser than us, holier than us, kinder than us, more loving than us, and is for us, then it is foolish to disobey Him.

Self-deception

Jesus’ own brother James says it this way, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). We have all likely met someone who had a lot of Bible knowledge but lacked a love for Jesus and obedience to the Bible; oftentimes we discover that they are very deceived people who arrogantly consider themselves spiritually mature when in fact they are not. Such people are by definition hypocrites since they do not obey what they have learned; they are like Satan, who is also deceived in that he is more wise and powerful than Jesus. The Bible records that Satan knows the Bible, but does not love Jesus or obey Him, which explains his unparalleled pride and self-deception.

Don't be a Bible student like Satan.

Because we do not want to be Bible students like Satan, we must always come to our study of Scripture with humility, bending our knee under the authority of Scripture, and with an eagerness to repent as God the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and folly. We must also continually connect all of our biblical study to the person and work of Jesus; He Himself taught that the key to understanding Scripture was to connect it to Him (e.g., Luke 24:27, 44–45; John 5:39).

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we open the Bible to meet with Jesus, repent of sin that causes distance from Jesus, and are filled with the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus, we are able to gladly obey Scripture; thus, we may live like and for Jesus because we live with Jesus according to His Word. Having now studied this, we will be blessed if we obey God’s command to study His word. As Jesus said in John 13:17, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Books to read.

If you would like to study the spiritual disciplines in greater detail, Donald S. Whitney has written a wonderful book titled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life that would be helpful for you to read. Also helpful are Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, and Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas.

It's very sad that the term "preaching to the choir" is a text book cliche, yet many churches and Christians are still only preaching to the converted. Too many Christians are the cliche, they are only preaching to the choir. These people only talk about Jesus with Jesus people, they only pray when they're at the dinner table, they are only friends with people from church, they never take part in secular events, and always say they'll pray for some one—but almost never do.

Do you only 'preach to the choir'?

Saul Williams is an activist, poet, and musician. He's known for being anti-authoritarian and against "the man" (I don't know if he's a Christian, so don't sign up for his theology class). But his music was recently featured in a Nike commercial—his fans were flabbergasted that he could possibly do work for a corporation.

Watch the Commercial

Williams wrote an open letter explaining his reasoning for selling the rights to the song (there are a couple cuss words—but if you're going to be a missionary to our culture you'll have to deal with a few of those). I found this quote from a 37signals blog post.

William's quote about preaching to the choir.

"I received a lot of questions from some about why I would allow my song ‘List of Demands’ to be used in a Nike campaign. Ironically, half of the people now reading this post never heard of me until that commercial aired. That, indeed, was one of my reasons for allowing it. A small circle of poets and conscious do-gooders are not enough to effect the change necessary to shift our planet in peril. We must enlist people from all walks of life, people not accustomed to questioning the norm, people who may simply want to dance uninterrupted without message or slogan. I see no glory in ‘preaching to the converted’."

The quote that stuck out to me was "I see no glory in ‘preaching to the converted’." and while I certainly see a big point in preaching to Christians still because we're all sinners who need to be convicted by the Word daily... He has a HUGE point. We need to preach the Gospel everywhere—at big corporations and beat poetry clubs, to sports teams and video game nerds, to rock stars and soccer moms, to condo dwelling city people and the homeless guy at the freeway off ramp. Everyone needs to know about Jesus, and that is what the Resurgence is about. It's a movement to equip people to love Jesus and tell the whole world about Him.