By Steve Higginbotham
How well can you do on this brief, five-question quiz?
Who was rebuked by Jesus for caring more about temporal things than eternal things? To whom did Jesus offer “living water” that would cause one to never again thirst? Which disciple was given a second chance to follow Jesus after denying him? Who postponed obedience to Christ by procrastinating for a “more convenient season?” Who was the captive who gained his freedom in exchange for Jesus’ death?
If your answers were (Martha, the Samaritan woman, Peter, Felix, and Barabbas), give yourself partial credit. But none of these answers are what I was looking for.
However, if you answered each question with your own name, then give yourself full credit!
Okay, so the quiz is a “trick,” but if you go back and re-read all the questions, you’ll see that your name is a perfect answer to every question. Have we not been guilty of caring more about temporal things than eternal things? Has Jesus not offered living water to us? Have we not been given a second chance? Have we not procrastinated in our obedience? And have we not gained our freedom in exchange of Jesus’ death?
The purpose of this little quiz is not really to know how well you know the Bible, but to determine how well you apply the Bible. May we all guard against getting so caught up in “knowing” the Scriptures that we forget to “internalize” the Scriptures.
James, the brother of Jesus said it this way:
“Be doers of the word, and ot hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be belssed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).
The Bible is a great book, but if we don’t make personal application of its truths, it will do us no good. Give it some thought.