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Bible Blog: Four Ways to Read the Bible

Christians should read the Bible. We all know this, right? And yet, if you’re like me, you often struggle to make it a regular habit. Why is that? Why do we have such a hard time reading the Bible? If you’re like me, you start to feel guilty. Maybe I don’t love God enough. Maybe I’m not sincere enough in my faith. Maybe I’m drifting away from God….

Maybe. But maybe not. I find that there are several practical obstacles that get in the way of reading the Bible, and they have nothing to do with how sincere my faith is. Sometimes I read the Bible the wrong way for what I’m trying to accomplish; sometimes I don’t pay attention to the genre of the book I’m reading; sometimes I’ve lost sight of where I am in the overall story of the Bible. There are plenty of practical obstacles that get in my way, but this month I want to focus on the first one: reading the Bible in the wrong way.

I find that there are (at least) four ways to read the Bible:

  1. Reading: approach the Bible like you would a novel. Read it in big chunks: whole stories or whole letters in one go. Focus on overarching plot and themes. Get a wide-angle view of scripture. Don’t worry about breaking down each verse.
  2. Public Reading: do the same as above, but listen to the Bible being read aloud. Use an audio book, a Bible app, or a reading partner. Listening uses different parts of your brain. Did you know that the Bible was written originally to be read aloud?
  3. Journaling: take the Bible in smaller chunks. Read a passage, reflect on it, and write down your reactions. Use a journaling Bible or a separate notebook. Focus on your personal feelings and reactions to the passage.
  4. Studying: this is where you break down what you’re reading verse-by-verse. Use multiple translations, a commentary, a Bible dictionary, etc., and get down into the nitty-gritty of the passage. What exactly does it mean? To you? To the original audience?

These four approaches are like a set of golf clubs: they’re all valuable, but you need to use the right club for the right job. For instance, if you decide to read through the Bible in a year, you should be using method #1. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to study my way through the Bible in a year, and I always get burned out. It’s not because I don’t care about the Bible—it’s because studying is only meant for small chunks at a time, not the whole Bible. Ideally you would want to use both—“read” (#1) through the Bible and “study” (#4) through small passages. And then in Church or small group you would “listen” to the Bible (#2), and in your devotions you would “journal” (#3).

I know that seems like a lot. I’m not saying that you need to be doing all four methods all the time. What I’m saying is that all four of these methods can contribute to our understanding of the Bible, and we need to make sure we’re using them properly. So if you decide to read through the Bible, don’t try to use your putter (#4)—you’ll never make it! Instead, pull out your driver (#1) and take it in big chunks, without wading into the nitty-gritty. You’ll last a lot longer that way.

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