When I was a young boy (back when the crust of the earth was cooling :) ), I would often get a rash on my arms. My mother would take me to the doctor and he would prescribe a tube of white goo to rub on the rash to make it better. I was looking at the tube one day (didn't have anything better to do) and I noticed that it was rather imaginatively called "The Ointment". It may as well have been call "the white goo". But I digress.
I believed the ointment worked. It always worked. However it wasn't of any value until I applied it to my skin. The word of God is like that. You can believe in it, cherish it, recommend it but it doesn't do any good until it is applied to your soul. Application is what the point of the Bible is.
Reading it and studying it are an important part of the process God has planned but they are bordering on useless if the word is not applied to your heart. James 1:22 puts it this way. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
By all means, search and find the meaning of the text. Certainly teach it and proclaim it. But don't nullify all that good work by not applying it to your life and teaching the application.
Some of us love words a little too much. We enjoy the academic experience of Bible Study a little too much.
We need to ask the question when listening to God's word, "What does God want me to do?". And then go out and do it.
Applying the ointment. What a concept?
