A better way to read the Bible in 2022

There are many good ways to read the Bible. The purpose of this article is to explain what I call “A Better Way” to read it.

Note that I am going to discuss reading the Bible instead of studying it, meditating on it, or memorizing it (which, of course, are also valuable ways to spend time in the Word).

But first, let’s address the issue of whether we really read the Bible. It seems to me that many professing Christians do not read the Bible very much. If they do, it is due to inconsistency and/or scarcity.

By “inconsistency,” I mean it’s not a habit. We do not read the Bible regularly. We do it from time to time, randomly, randomly. “Maybe I’ll spend time in the Word today, maybe not.”

Such an approach to Scripture reflects the attitude that reading the Word is not a priority. “I’m busy. I have a job, a family, and things to do. And reading the Bible just isn’t that important to me.”

“I still love God. I attend worship services regularly, give money, and serve at church (in the nursery, or as an usher, or in many other important ways). I do just fine without this ‘Quiet Time’ people talk. Having ‘devotions’ just isn’t something I see the need to do.”

By “scarcity” I mean it is for very short periods of time, and may involve reading a verse from a daily devotional book that follows this format: a verse is quoted, and then the author provides a few paragraphs of explanation and application, along with a sentence at the end.

Such devotional books are as popular today as they have ever been. And I’m not condemning them. These books contain God’s truth and are written by devoted followers of Christ whose sincere motive is to communicate God’s Word to God’s people.

I have read and benefited from such books. My wife and I have read John Piper’s books. The dawn of indestructible joy, twenty-five daily readings for advent. It was excellent and follows the format outlined above.

But if this “verse a day” approach is the only how we read the Bible, are we not letting ourselves down? It certainly is better than nothing. But I think something is missing here, and I hope to explain why by introducing you to A Better Way to Read the Bible.

To unpack A better way to read the Bible, think of your favorite book (besides the Bible). It can be fiction or non-fiction. It can be a book you’ve read at any point in your life: a childhood treasure or a classic you read in a college literature class. Or maybe it’s a book you recently read. Could be Alice in Wonderland Prayed grapes of wrath Prayed Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Now, think about why you like this book so much. And how much she enjoyed reading it and how she benefited from it, how much it was worth.

Imagine you are talking to someone about this book, perhaps a good friend, family member, or co-worker. This person has not read the book, even though they have heard of it.

and you want to explain What to read your favorite book. Now notice I didn’t say share why You really liked this book. Suppose he has already done so. Right now, I want you to explain What to read it

You’ll say? You would say things like these:

1. Don’t start reading the book from the beginning.

2. Don’t read everything.

3. Instead of reading the entire book from cover to cover, for the next 365 days, take a random sentence (or at most a paragraph) from anywhere in the book and read just that.

4. It really doesn’t matter what you read each day, or which part of the book you read, just read a small portion each day, in no particular order.

5. Don’t know where to start? Just pick any random page and start there. Or find someone who has read the entire book and ask them to suggest which 365 sentences (or paragraphs) you should read over the next year.

6. If you find a particular sentence, paragraph, or chapter that you really like, you can read it over and over again.

7. After a while, you may find many sentences, paragraphs, and even chapters that you like very much – your favorite sections. It’s okay to read those parts repeatedly, and there’s really no need to worry about reading the other parts you haven’t read.

What do you think of that approach?

Or, instead, you would say this: “Start at the beginning and read the entire book.”

Obviously, you would go with the last comment, right?

A better way to read the Bible is read the bible like any other book, because to really understand a book, don’t you have to read it all? And isn’t one of the main goals of reading the Bible to understand it? Therefore, shouldn’t we read it like any other book?

Do you find the Bible confusing and difficult to understand? Perhaps this is because you have never read it as you read it any other book. You’ve never read it cover to cover. You have never read everything.

So this is a better way to read the Bible: Read it like any other book.

I wonder how what percentage of Christians have actually done this: read the entire Bible. I have no idea. What do you think?

But it doesn’t matter how many other people have or haven’t.

I’m worried about me and you.

Have you read all 66 books of the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation? If so, great!

If not… what would be the reason? Over the next few days, perhaps it would be good to ponder this question, asking God to reveal the answer to you. And if he’s so inclined, drop me an email and let me know how you get on with that exercise.

Going back to your favorite book… I assume you’ve read it all. How long did it take you to do that? And by that, I don’t mean so much how many total hours you spent reading, but over what period of time you read it. How many days or weeks or months or years did it take you?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it took you a few weeks or a few months, tops, to read the whole thing.

So when we come to the Bible with this idea that we should read it like any other book, shouldn’t we prioritize reading the entire book in a reasonable amount of time? Of course, the Bible is longer than the typical book you would check out of the library, much longer. Depending on the font and paper size of your version, the average Bible is over 1,000 pages.

A few years ago I took a translation of the Bible into the public domain (World English Bible) and published a New Testament. Paper size is 6 x 9; the font size is 10 or 11 points. And the New Testament alone is 390 pages long. Since the New Testament is about 25% of the entire Bible, the 66 books would fill almost 1600 pages.

In determining a “reasonable” amount of time to read the entire Bible, many have settled on the well-known “read the Bible in a year” time frame. I think that’s a very achievable goal, especially when you consider that this translates to about 3 chapters a day, which should take even a slow reader 20-30 minutes tops.

Think about it. If you spend 30 minutes a day for 365 days, you can read the entire Bible in a year. How many of us spend at least half an hour each day texting, watching TV, surfing the internet, liking Facebook posts, and any other potentially time-wasting activity? (Over the years, my weakness has been television, especially sporting events. I wonder what my life would be like today if, for the last 55 years, I spent as much time reading as watching television.)

So reading the entire Bible is not such a daunting task after all. And that’s how we read pretty much all other books. Why not approach the Bible in the same way?

What do you say? Does anything I’ve written so far ring a bell? I pray that it does.

Let me close by telling you about my own experience with reading the Bible. When I began to read the Bible in its entirety, my understanding of Scripture skyrocketed to a new level.

It was incredible. I could go on and on about this. But it’s true. God used this simple exercise of seeing the big picture of Scripture to give us an idea of ​​the meaning of all the parts. And there are many parts to the Bible, beginning with the two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament there are the historical books and the Law of Moses; there are the books of wisdom like Job, Psalms and Proverbs; and there are the prophetic books, the longest ones like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and a bunch of shorter books like Jonah, Micah, and Malachi. Then there is the New Testament, with the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; then come the letters written to churches and individuals; and then comes the grand finale of Revelation.

Phew! How do we make sense of all those different authors, genres, and famous people?

We begin by stepping back and realizing that while the Bible is an incredibly diverse collection of 66 books (like a 1,000-page mini-library), it’s also a book with an author, namely God. Yes, God wrote this book!

And to understand the Bible as a book with an author, we need to read everything in a reasonable amount of time. I pray that you see the value of that today, and that you experience the joy of reading the entire Bible. May God be with you as you.

Also, many Bible reading plans are available online. These provide a schedule for the year, telling you which books to read in what order and which chapters to read each day. There are several ways to do this, so take a look at these plans and choose one you like and give it a try. Just visit your favorite search engine, enter “Bible reading plans” and you’ll have no trouble finding plenty to choose from. Enjoy!