Please enjoy this excerpt from Manage Your Mission – Living wisely and abundantly for today and eternity. This book will help craft your life mission, establish its priorities, and succeed in each area: Faith – Family – Fitness – Field – Friends – Fun – Finances.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Isaiah 55:8–11 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
2 Timothy 3:16–17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
You encounter God in the Bible. His Word truly is living and active. It accomplishes what he wants it to. His ways are so far above ours that we can’t even fathom the distance. As Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” so let’s start with the importance of Bible reading and some tools to get the most out of the Word of God.
If you want a relationship with someone, you must spend time with him. The primary way God speaks to us is through the Bible, and the primary way we speak to him is through prayer. Therefore, Bible reading (or listening, for you auditory types) is essential to the Christian life. We need to know our God, ourselves, and our enemy. How can we share this Good News with the world if we don’t understand our faith well? How will we keep our faith strong when the world attacks it directly and indirectly? Not everyone has to be a theologian, but I challenge you to devote time to understanding and defending God’s Word and being able to make a good case for Jesus to a world that desperately needs him. We have far too many Christians who don’t want to learn more about their Savior.
Bible reading is the primary way God transforms you. In John 17:17, Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” When I first read the entire Bible in 1996, it was the most transformational year of my life. What was fascinating was that I wasn’t trying to transform; it was that reading God’s Word every morning and evening did the transforming.
We often turn Bible reading into a chore when we should be rejoicing that we have access to what God wants to tell us. Perhaps it is because the Bible is so ubiquitous. But imagine if you knew there was a God but couldn’t discover anything about him. If someone brought you thorough documentation from him with everything he wanted you to know, wouldn’t you be eager to read it? Yet, many Christians have never read all of the New Testament, let alone the entire Bible.
I won’t go into details about why I believe that the original writings of the Bible were inerrant, infallible, and inspired. There are lots of resources out there to defend those claims. Instead, I simplify it by noting that the original writings turned out exactly as God and the human authors wanted them, that they have been reliably transmitted to us, and that the key messages are unambiguous. Are there minor variations between ancient manuscripts? Yes, but that’s part of the art and science of textual criticism. The experts can compare writings from different parts of the world at different times in history and be confident about the original texts. Nothing has been lost because God doesn’t lose things. Also, we have thousands more manuscripts of ancient Bibles than we do of other ancient texts. The original writings have been well-preserved for us.
There is a saying that the main things of the Bible are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things. That lesson alone will make your studies more straightforward and keep you from getting off track into weird theologies. For example, I can point you to over 100 passages that directly and indirectly teach that Jesus is the only way to salvation. The repetition isn’t what makes it true, though we have many good reasons to believe it is true (more on that in the Apologetics section). But the inescapable conclusion of any honest reader — Christian or not — would be that the Bible clearly and emphatically teaches that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus. Therefore, anyone claiming to be a Christian while denying that teaching should be dismissed as a false teacher, or at best, saved and confused.
As the book of Jude points out, we are commanded to know our faith well enough to contend for it in the marketplace of ideas. But you’ll only know that if you read it for yourself.
Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
And for 2,000 years the Bereans have been lauded for testing what Paul said in light of the Old Testament:
Acts 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
You’ll be blessed by reading the entire Bible, even if you don’t understand everything. But whatever you do, don’t apologize for the Bible or for Jesus. That won’t end well.
Matthew 11:6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Here are some timeless Bible reading tips that have helped me immensely.
Focus on what you do understand. It is easy to get bogged down with things we don’t understand. While it is helpful to work through those questions in detail, remember that many things in the Bible are simple. Keep in mind the overall themes. Every verse is important, but you don’t want to build your theology on something Bible-believing experts actively debate. For example, I’ve seen various views on the book of Revelation by pastors I deeply respect. So I don’t get dogmatic about the end times. I figure if I die before Jesus returns, that will be my own personal rapture.
Pray for insight and the desire to know what the text means, not what you want it to mean.
Look for God’s promises. You’ll be surprised at how many promises are in the Bible and how God always keeps his promises. That should encourage you. For example, Romans 4:20–21 says, “No unbelief made him [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
Don’t be put off by the difficult truths in the Bible, such as God ordering the clearing out of the Promised Land, a man killed for collecting wood on the Sabbath, Ananias and Saphira killed for lying to the Holy Spirit about a sales price for land, Paul’s teachings on women, etc. Those passages may offend your 21st-century sensibilities, but they will make more sense if you understand them in the larger context of the examples God was making. And remember, for instance, that if you don’t like what Paul said, you don’t like what the Holy Spirit said. So seek to understand the passage, but don’t edit the Bible, and don’t apologize for what God said. He is the creator of the universe, so he is sovereign over all life and death.
There are also sections like Genesis 34, where Dinah’s brothers convince all the men of a town to get circumcised, and while they are recovering, the brothers slaughter them. That goes in the “Stories they didn’t teach me in Sunday school” category. But the Bible is a thoroughly honest book that records the sins of heroes and villains. That doesn’t mean it approves of the sins.
Trust it. The original texts turned out exactly as God wanted them to and have been accurately translated. We’ll cover this more in the Apologetics section.
Always read in context! Don’t just read a single verse; read at least a paragraph or more. If you don’t read in context, you may misunderstand the text. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that lesson too many times.
Use study Bibles and commentaries, but always remember that only the Bible is inspired by God. Those resources can help you understand the context of a passage and more about what book you are reading. It is beneficial to know who wrote the book, its date, its purpose, how it fits in with the rest of the Bible, nuances from the original languages, and much more.
The Bible wasn’t written to us, but it was written for us. For example, the church in Galatia didn’t need a study guide when they received the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. They were the Galatians. They knew all the circumstances. But to understand the book 2,000 years later, it helps to know the background.
Also, consider how the Old Testament was written to Jewish people but has significant meaning for us today, especially in understanding the New Testament. The Jewish people came out of Egypt after 400 years of captivity, so much of the writings were designed to show how the real God was vastly different from the Egyptian gods.
Don’t be shy about asking for help as you learn the Bible. We take classes to improve our abilities with computers, sports, sewing, music, etc., but people can be embarrassed to admit they don’t know the Bible inside and out. Step one: humble yourself! Then dive in and keep learning and growing. This passage resonates with many people as they realize that they often need help to understand the Bible:
Acts 8:30–31 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
So be like the Ethiopian. Invite someone to guide you through Scripture. The Bible has different genres: history, poetry, doctrine, wisdom, etc. I am so bad at understanding poetry that my freshman English professor read parts of my paper to the class to show how badly some interpret it. You might think I was offended, but I just laughed. She was so right. So I need extra help from study notes when reading the Psalms, for example.
Yes, some parts of the Bible are a challenge to comprehend. If the Apostle Peter and the Holy Spirit say that some things in the Bible are hard to understand, then some things are hard to understand.
2 Peter 3:15–16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
But that doesn’t mean all the parts are hard to understand or anything is impossible to understand.
Share what you’ve read with others and participate in Bible studies. This can help you reinforce what you’ve learned, benefit others, and learn from them.
How much should you read? A little. Or a lot. Or a medium-sized amount. Just read it. I read at different paces at different times. Once, I listened to the audio Bible every chance I got and made it through in a couple of months. It was an excellent overview. Other times, I’ve been in studies that would spend an hour on just a few verses, but it was also valuable. A read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan is fine if you don’t set yourself up for failure. If it takes longer than a year, don’t sweat it. Some people like to read a particular book repeatedly for a month to really “own” it. Memorizing longer passages or books has the same impact. You catch the themes and nuances that you might otherwise miss. In other words, just read it. If you are in a season where time and energy are short, such as being a new mother, then be kind to yourself and just read/listen and absorb what you can.
Hopefully, those tips will give you some encouragement and help in studying God’s Word.
Reading the Bible can make you “wise for salvation.” It teaches you about Jesus, the creator of the universe and the author of life, and the only hope for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It will strengthen your faith. It will change the way you think. It will comfort you. It will remind you of his promises. It will convict you when you are sinning. It will give you assurance. And so much more!
Some people hold to what I call Leopard Theology, where they claim that the Bible is only inspired in spots and that they are inspired to spot the spots. Spelling that out makes it obvious they are crafting a god in their own image. By what standard do they know what parts are “really” inspired? And if their false god couldn’t get it right the first time, how can we trust that he is speaking clearly to them now? Then there is Advanced Leopard Theology, where God is also changing spots and adding and removing spots, and, oddly enough, he is only telling theological Leftists and Progressives. So, again, they are creating a god in their own image and sitting in judgment of the real God. That’s a bad idea.
Don’t be a lazy Christian who neglects the Bible and doesn’t learn more about the faith yet is a subject matter expert on sports or TV shows. You’ll do yourself, your family, your friends, and church a great service by being better informed.
My final encouragement to you is this sort of tongue-in-cheek consideration: If you are a Christian and haven’t read the entire Bible at least once, it will be awkward in Heaven when you meet the authors. Oh, uh, hi Obadiah . . . yeah, well, sorry I never got around to reading your book . . . OK, I can’t lie anymore, I didn’t even know you had a book in the Bible . . . oh look — a squirrel! [runs away]. And imagine what the Apostle Paul will be like if you didn’t read all his books. While I don’t know exactly how we interact in Heaven, you’ll certainly cross paths with biblical authors many times throughout eternity. Reading their works now will result in great conversations in Heaven. You’ll thank me later.
Just read it.
Copyright 2022
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible
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