What or Who is Supposed to be THE Guide of Christian Bible Study and Understanding?

Regarding Reliance Upon Commentaries, Instead of Trusting God's Word & Spirit

Please, test and prove this by God's Word! 

Have God's Word and His Spirit become boring or untrustworthy to believers? Many say they believe God's Word, yet they hunger and thirst after commentators, on which they feed and nurse? Aren't real believers indwelt by God's Spirit of promise? Are believers unable to read the Bible and understand sound doctrine, without reliance on commentaries? Believers with appetites for human commentaries are easy targets for false doctrine (2 Timothy 4:1-4). Believers, who distrust their God-given ability (John 16:13) to "rightly divide the Word" as the Holy Spirit tries to lead their biblical studies, shall always prove their distrust by their reliance on human commentaries instead of allowing God's Spirit to lead. They distrust God's Word and quench His Spirit's (1 Thessalonians 5:19) attempts to guide them into all truth (1 John 2:27), as they rely on commentators to sort out God's Word for them. Why pray for and trust Holy Spirit guidance, when doubt is so easy?

The Bible says of itself:

Ecclesiastes 12:12-14:
¹²  And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
¹³  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
¹⁴  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

2 Peter 1:20-21
²⁰  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
²¹  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Psalm 12:6-7
⁶  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
⁷  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. 

God gave us His Word and Spirit to prove all things (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:21). Only God's Spirit and Word can lead us into God's pure truth.

IF one puts more faith in commentaries than in God's promised Holy Spirit guidance, then one makes commentaries an idolatrous substitute for the Word of God. Those who trust commentaries, more than the Holy Spirit, become as the false religions and cults they denounce, seeking answers from idols. Doctrines based on commentaries can quickly weaken and corrupt formerly sound churches.

The Bible says there is safety in many counselors (Proverbs 11:14, 24:6), IF we discern whether those counselors lead us astray from the cover-to-cover record of God's Word and the leading of His Spirit. Believers are NOT called to trust anything above God's Word and Spirit. When we read comments about the Bible, how many of us believe the word of commentators instead of prayerfully researching those verses within their full biblical chapters, their whole biblical book, or whether the alleged doctrine holds consistently from cover to cover?

Jezebel had a host of false prophets. Their relied on idolatrous religious doctrine, but they were defeated by the singular faith and obedience of God's Elijah, who relied solely on the Word and Spirit of the LORD. Likewise, the highly educated Pharisees and Sadducees were at each others' throats doctrinally, and could not agree about eternity or the doctrine of Christ, who He was, or what He was there to accomplish. The baptist, John, knew. Neither bad counsel nor education were sufficient. Only the Holy Spirit is always sufficient to teach believers about "rightly dividing the word of truth".

There is only one Spirit whom we can always trust. God's. There is only one book that we can always trust. God's Bible. IF we read commentaries, we must always read them through several times and test what they allege by the full biblical context in which they claim to gain their knowledge. God keeps His Word, and wants us to seek His face about His Word, so His Spirit can teach us. Amen.