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Insight

Insight is the spiritual quality that enables a person to appreciate God’s mind and will in matters of behavior, truth and providence, especially where right perception is not obvious. Insight is akin to wisdom and understanding. It is given by God and is to be sought by believers.

Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. | Luke 24:45–47 (NASB)

I must lean in and learn. I have to study and take it to heart. I have to change my mind and act differently. This isn’t academic. It is the truth.

We seek insight of the Bible for the same reason a man seeks to understand a love letter from his sweetheart. God loves us and desires to restore our relationship with Him. God communicates His love to us in the Bible.

We seek insight of the Bible for the same reason a soldier seeks to understand a dispatch from his commander. Obeying God’s commands brings honor to Him and guides us in the way of life. Those commands are found in the Bible.

We seek insight of the Bible for the same reason a mechanic seeks to understand a repair manual. Things go wrong in this world, and the Bible not only diagnoses the problem (i.e.missing God’s goal for our lives) but also points out the solution (faith in the Messiah). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our Master” (Romans 6:23).

The source of peace and assurance in life is the Word of God, so our Lord “opened their understanding” of the Old Testament Scriptures, just as He had done with the Emmaus disciples. After all, the believers were not being sent into the world to share their own personal experiences but to share the truths of the Word of God. We today cannot touch and feel the Lord Jesus, nor is it necessary that we do so; but we can rest our faith on the Word of God.

Jesus not only enabled them to understand the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, but He also reminded them of what He had taught them, and He explained how it all fit together. Now they began to understand the necessity for His suffering and death and how the Cross related to the promise of the kingdom. What a privilege it was for them to listen to Jesus expound the Word!

  • Luke 24:45–47 (NASB) —Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
  • Luke 24:27 —Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
  • Matthew 16:12 —Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Source:

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 280). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.