Celebrating 25 Years of the English Standard Version

This article is part of the ESV 25th Anniversary series. Love for God’s Word I am happy to celebrate the publication of the English Standard Version of the Bible mainly because I love the Bible. If we love God, we love the voice of God, and if we love the voice of God, we love the God-inspired word of God, the Bible. Nothing, under God, is more precious to us than the Bible. We come from a long line of Christians who felt this way. The English Puritan preacher John Rogers, who died in 1636, prayed before his congregation, “Lord, whatever thou dost to us, take not thy Bible from us; kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods; only spare us the Bible, take not away thy Bible.” That’s my spiritual ancestry. That’s the DNA in my spiritual bones. Take away anything before you take away the words of God. More to be desired are they than gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. I’ve treasured the words of your mouth more than my portion of food. Man does not live by bread alone. Our life hangs on every word from the mouth of God. Where else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Everything else perishes. But your word will never pass away. Ten t...