How are You Reading Your Bible?
We begin this article by making the assumption that you are a daily Bible reader. Okay, we will also settle for often if not every day, but in any event, let’s just talk about how you read it. Most people struggle with understanding the Bible because they have not taken the proper approach. Simply reading it and even reading it regularly is not enough. Here are a few pointers to help your Bible reading become everything it can be:
1. Know the Testaments. By no means start with the New Testament. You have to get a handle on the Old Testament first. From creation to the fall of man to the plan of God, the Old Testament sets the stage for anything we could ever understand in the new. Reading Hebrews is impossible without knowing a great deal about Leviticus. You can’t understand the Galatian letter until you know the Jew/Gentile problem and the covenant of circumcision God had with the Jews through the line of Abraham. Every single New Testament book has an origin in Old Testament teachings.
2. Know the authors and audiences. I have promised myself personally that I am not going to do any more Bible readings from any book without first getting the background information. I need to know who was guided by the Holy Spirit to write. I need to know who they were writing to and the major message of the book. I need to know when it was written and in what context it was received. I need to know where it fits into to the rest of the Biblical story of God’s revealed will to the human race.
3. Stop coming into the reading with an opinion. One of the things that has blessed me most in preaching is the responsibility to teach others the content of Scripture. The only way I can do that is to take a blank sheet to the beginning of my study. People pick up their Bibles attached to a lot of their own personal feelings. They want answers from God and, in the frailty of our human ways, this means looking for what we want to hear and shielding ourselves from truths and commandments that demand a change in us. Let the Bible say what it says and read for comprehension. Take it as a book that you have received to give to someone else with the knowledge that someone else wrote it with an intended purpose. This will help you get out of the way.
4. Open your Bible to see if what you have always been taught is actually true. If you are like me you have had a lifetime of Bible classes and have heard thousands of sermons. If we have been exposed to all of that and have simply been taking somebody’s word for it then all we really have is what they were able to understand and communicate. I would encourage every reader of the Bible to look at every verse with an open mind. Put everything in context. Understand the true definitions of words. Figure out if the verse is to be taken literally, figuratively, or otherwise.
5. Accept the Bible as the final authority on all spiritual matters. An examination of the Bible is a journey into the heart and mind of God. Remember that God is sovereign and his will is supreme over yours. There is no point in studying the Bible if you cannot accept its inerrancy and authority. The very reason God has given us his will in written form is for us to understand him and render obedience and be saved. Approach the Bible as your very source of life, liberty, and light. If you can do this, you can in fact know and do the very will of God.
“Man shall not love by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” – Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” – John 8:31-32.
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
