Withholding 'The Key of Knowledge': How the Church Fails to Teach Personal Bible Study
Orientation
Many believers feel confused by Scripture and dependent on others for understanding, doubting their own ability to grasp God's Word.
- A sense of spiritual passivity can develop from relying solely on sermons.
- Biblical illiteracy often results from not being equipped with basic study tools.
- This confusion can lead to disengagement from personal Bible reading altogether.
Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52)
— Luke 11:52
Clarification
The 'key of knowledge' is not a mystical secret but the practical ability to engage Scripture directly with the Holy Spirit and simple tools.
- This key was withheld by religious leaders in Jesus' day and can be withheld by systems today that foster clerical dependence.
- The goal is not academic knowledge but spiritual discernment and confidence in the consistent truth of God's Word.
- Withholding this key undermines the priesthood of all believers in practice.
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27)
— 1 John 2:27
Structure
God consistently uses words throughout Scripture to express the same truths, enabling believers to discern His mind through word studies and the whole counsel of His Word.
- The Holy Spirit helps believers use dictionaries and concordances to understand the Bible precisely.
- This method reveals the major themes of Scripture and builds confidence in the gospel message.
- Direct engagement with the text protects against being tossed by every wind of doctrine.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
— 2 Timothy 2:15
Weight-Bearing Prose
The institutional failure to teach believers how to study Scripture with tools like concordances and word studies constitutes withholding ‘the key of knowledge’ (Luke 11:52). This creates a chain of dependence: believers, lacking hermeneutical skills, rely on clergy for interpretation. When sermons misuse Scripture, confusion results, leading believers to doubt their own understanding rather than the teaching. This doubt breeds disengagement, passivity, and widespread biblical illiteracy. This system suppresses the spiritual discernment God intends for each believer and functionally denies the priesthood of all believers. The Pauline revelation assumes believers can test all things and hold fast to what is good (1 Thess 5:21). The solution is not a new clerical class but equipping every saint with the simple means to trace God’s consistent use of language across Scripture, backed by the Holy Spirit’s teaching ministry. This empowers confidence in the gospel and protects the inheritance of truth secured in Christ.
Integration
Your ability to understand Scripture does not depend on a special class of teachers. The same Holy Spirit who sealed you teaches you. Christ is your wisdom. The tools are simple—a concordance, a willingness to look up words—but the confidence they build is in the Shepherd’s voice, not your own skill. There is no pressure to become an expert, only the invitation to know Him better through His Word. Your standing as a son, your access to your inheritance, is already secure in Christ. Engaging Scripture directly is part of enjoying that inheritance, not earning it. Let the Word itself, with the Spirit’s help, re-anchor you in the finished work of Christ and the assurance that you are equipped to know Him.