Most Bible readers and students are aware of the challenges of Bible study. There are admittedly some difficult things in Scripture, just as there are some very simple and understandable matters. But I want to give some reasons why everything in the Bible is hard. This may sound shocking at first, but it is true.

"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:15-16.)

The disciples of Jesus complained about the Lord speaking in parables so often. They wanted him to speak plainly.

"And the disciples came and said unto them, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." (Matt. 13:10-11.) "His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God." (John 16:29-30.)

The apostle John was smart waiting till last to write Revelation! No one could write after him in Scripture criticizing his strange writings. His Gospel account and epistles are simple in style, both in Greek and English. However, Revelation is a different matter altogether.

When Philip, the evangelist, met the Ethiopian eunuch reading the scroll of Isaiah, Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. (Acts 8:30.) The words of Isaiah 53 were not so hard for him to understand. There were other reasons why he found them difficult. Paul wrote, "Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." (Eph. 3:4.) Simply understanding the meaning of the words is not the only reason why Scripture may be difficult.

"And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, (for he was above all the people), and when he opened it, all the people stood up. . . . So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading." (Nehemiah 8:5, 8.)

In the above passages, several reasons have already been given why some Scripture is difficult.

Brother Tom Holland gave two reasons why some Scripture is difficult. (Difficult Texts of the New Testament Explained, Wendle Winkler, ed., The Fourth Annual Fort Worth Lectures, 1981, 80.) They are liability of language and limitations of the people.

That is what Peter was referring to about some of Paul’s writings. Paul was partially to blame according to Peter and some unlearned people were twisting what Paul wrote. I find it amazing that Peter, an inspired apostle and gifted by the Holy Spirit, would find some of Paul’s writings hard to be understood. But those gifts did not guarantee that even apostles would understand everything miraculously, or that they would always act in accordance with the Gospel. Peter failed in both these respects at various times.

Think about the people to whom Nehemiah read the Law of Moses. Who were they? Why did they not understand the Law? First, these were Jewish people who had just spent seventy years in Babylonian captivity. Some of these people had not heard about the Law or had seen priests offering sacrifices in their entire lives. Some were born in captivity in a foreign land. They may have learned a new language and had forgotten much of their own. The Law of Moses was now an ancient document, approximately 1000 years old. Daniel is written mostly in Hebrew, but major sections of it are written in Aramaic. While these languages are similar, there are differences as well.

We suffer from the liability of language today. The King James Version, completed in 1611, uses the old Elizabethan words many of which does not make sense to a 21^st century audience. Some are these: prevent (to go before), wot, wist, thou, thy, and all those words that ended with –est. These are English words in our own language that have changed over time. In addition, our Bible has gone through several languages---Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin (for approx. 1000 years) and finally into English. What a challenge before us to study the Scriptures carefully and gain the intended meaning. Fortunately, we have many helps, from among men and God. There are many good tools for Bible study; God gives gifts to some in the church to teach.

Sometimes the words are simple enough to understand, but we do not know enough to be sure about it. Some examples are these:

when I was with you, I told you these things?" Yes, Paul, but we were not there when you told them those things. We struggle with understanding the meaning of "the son of perdition" due to a lack of information.

We know what it does not mean. What is practiced among the Mormons is contradictory to plain passages in Scripture. It does not mean that one today can be baptized for others who have died. That act would be meaningless.

Peter wrote that some who were "unlearned and unstable." They do not really want to know what the God’s will is, and they purposefully twist the Scriptures to suit themselves. Paul wrote about those who were "ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim. 3:7.) Others were "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error." (Eph. 4:14.) Some wanted to be teachers of the law, but "understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." (1 Tim. 1:7.)

The problem of unstable and unlearned people is intensified by false teachers. They prey on such people. For this reason, every possible doctrine can and is being taught with multitudes following the false teachers. Many will deny truth and affirm error, but doing so does not prove what is right. God’s Word does.

Some passages are difficult simply because we cannot intellectually determine what is meant, as discussed above. But for the majority of passages, the difficulty is not language, or man’s intellectual ability, or insufficient information, but it is the problem of the will. Man simply does not want to do God’s will.

"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17.)

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17.) This is not a man who cannot figure out what is good; he knows but does not do it. It is a matter of the will.

Paul explained his struggle against sin to the Romans. He wrote, "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." (7:18.) Paul genuinely wanted to do the right thing, but there was a struggle going on between the flesh and will. Jesus said, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt. 26:41.) Many people want to do only the good and right, but no person can live totally above sin. This does not hinder one’s justification. However, if my will is against God’s will, there is a serious problem.

Some passages are difficult, not due to a lack of understanding, but of the will and heart. I am convinced that we should not be so concerned about the baptism of the dead, son of perdition, or the beasts of the book of Revelation. But rather we should be concerned about the passages that we do understand. I do not believe that anyone will be lost due to some obscure passage somewhere.

Here are some to consider:

"We love him because he first loved us. If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 4:19-21.) "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35.)

I have never seen so much bitterness as now exists in our churches. There is so much discontentment, lack of willingness to be patience with one another, too much talking and criticizing, too many using the church for their own purposes and good instead of the good of others. Many are putting their self-interests above that of the will of God and the good of the church. People are willing for others to be lost just in order to get their own way. Will you determine along with me to calm down, to be at peace with one another and with God, to commit to doing what is right??

Brother Gus Nichols years ago lamented, I cannot get my brethren to make a commitment to live right! If push comes to shove (that means, If I do not get my way), many seem to be willing to scrap everything about the Gospel and walk away empty-handed! "Will you also go away?" Jesus asked.

Someone said to me recently, "Of all the places on earth, we should be able to find peace, contentment, fellowship and love in the church among Christians." But, alas, too often it is not so.

"Therefore all things whatsoever that ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." (Matt. 7:12.) The golden is not difficult to understand; the difficulty comes in practicing it. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan and ended it with these words, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise." (Luke 10:36-37.)

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27.) James tells us plainly what is the meaning of pure religion before God. That is not difficult to understand. It is more difficult to resolve to do.

Someone has said, "The poorest of the poor among those who preach can still preach better than you can live." Another said, "If you cannot preach better than you can live, then you are not much of a preacher!" Think about that the next time you are prone to criticize a preacher that have heard. Even as poor as his preaching was/is, he can still preach better than you can live.

Many passages are hard because of the flesh gets in the way, or simply because I have not resolved to live right before God.