The Spiritual Practice of Reading the Bible

No other book in the history of publishing has been more vilified or praised than the Bible. No other book comes close to paralleling the Bible’s readership.

Best-seller lists don’t bother listing the Bible. It’s the best-selling book every year—and the distance between it and second place is so great that comparison is pointless.

Best estimates are that by 2007 there were around 7.5 billion copies of the Bible printed—in 349 languages, with at least one book of the Bible being translated into another 2,123 languages. By comparison, the second-best-selling book of all time is J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit. As of 2018, sales were 140.6 million.

And you say, but the Bible is a series of books and The Hobbit is just one book. Fair enough. The second-best-selling book series of all time is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. The series—and its spin-offs—total about 500 million sales. That’s enough in royalty payments to make Ms. Rowling richer than the Queen.

Millions versus billions. Both are large numbers to comprehend. Here’s some perspective: A million seconds is twelve days. A billion seconds is thirty-one years.

I recommend reading Tolkien and Rowling.

I highly recommend reading the Bible.

I’ve been writing lately in general terms about the spiritual disciplines. This article marks my departure from generality to examine each of the historic disciplines specifically.

A quick search reveals there is not a standardized list of the disciplines. While I would not ask you to form a new denomination based upon my list, I have chosen twelve disciplines—or practices—to examine more closely: Bible reading, personal reflection (and journaling), confession, submission (as pertinent to both men and women), fasting, sabbath and secrecy, silence, solitude, worship, prayer, soul friendship, and service which includes giving and generosity.

Why again are we examining the spiritual disciplines?

For the last decade or longer I’ve been exploring why the church is losing its voice in society—that is, why the critique of the church is that it and its message are no longer relevant. My earlier articles reveal my rationale. So, in the conservation of words, the church has lost its relevance because we have failed in our fundamentals, i.e. our spiritual disciplines. Given this, a return to our fundamentals will precede our return to relevance in society and influence within culture.

Our message is the Gospel. That’s certainly not irrelevant. Our delivery is a smorgasbord of ministry. Yet, no program, tactic, appeal, or series is retaining dedicated Believers.

It’s tempting to say the world is so dark that the Gospel can’t break through. I’m not buying that and neither is the long story of Christian history.

It’s also tempting to say we need one more program, one more emphasis, one more study. I’m not buying that either. The church has more information and spiritual teaching than at any time in history.

It’s also tempting to say ministers are not hip enough, not current enough. If a minister would use more technology, untuck his shirt tail, comb his hair differently…. I’m not buying this critique either.

Whether it is business, athletics, an area of expertise, a hobby, or the spiritual life, everything human is dependent upon fundamental practices. Without variation, when failure occurs, it is because a fundamental was lost, broken, botched, or ignored.

No, the church does not need something more to regain its relevance. The church needs to return to its fundamental practices: the spiritual disciplines. We are deemed irrelevant because our fundamentals are pithy, poorly executed, and partially practiced.

The first, most fundamental practice of the Christian life is Bible reading. The Bible’s publication numbers are impressive, not because of a marketing campaign, but because the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

This is not my opinion. Rather, the internal evidence of the Bible itself, as well as the practiced eye and study of centuries of experts, and the testimony of multiplied millions of our predecessors in the faith, establish not only the Bible’s uniqueness, but its divine inspiration, and power to change the lives of those who read it.

The Bible is filled with principles and wisdom. But it is fundamentally more than this. The Bible is the expressed will and desire of God. It contains the inspired words of God’s heart to our hearts. Reading the Bible for personal edification is akin to reading a series of letters from God to you—so personal is the Bible to your life, wellbeing, and heart.

In your heart, which as a Believer is inscribed with the desires of God and is the place of His residence, you deeply desire to know God personally. Your heart and the heart of God are joined, bonded, made one. Your heart and the heart of God can no more be separated than one can be divided into two. What you desire and what God desires are not only compatible, they are integrally linked into common motive, intent, and action.

God is so dedicated to this proposition and arrangement that He inspired a book to convey to us in concrete terms what He is like and what is true of us as His children.

In your heart of hearts, you desire to delve deeply into Scripture on a regular basis because it acquaints you with God and proceeds to build a vibrant relationship between Him and you. If you think about it, you may be interested in knowing more about God, but what you truly desire is to know God Himself and what the nature of your relationship with Him is like.

While biblical insights, principles, and information about God may interest you, what truly motivates your heart as a Christian is to know God personally, intimately, such that you have confidence that because you are in Him and He is in you, His Word guides, informs, and infuses every aspect of your daily life.

This is your heart’s desire.

You will realize your heart’s desire by practicing the discipline of reading the Bible.

Let me make certain we are all on the same page: The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, grouped into an old section and a new section: respectively, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The books are categorized within these two sections according to themes, e.g. poetry, prophecy, gospels, letters, etc.

Sitting down to read the Bible from page 1 to page 1450, like you would read a novel, won’t work. That’s not how the Bible is organized.

Rather, you will find the Bible more approachable if you read from the New Testament first. It will inform you of the backstory underlying the Old Testament.

The theme of the Bible is God’s pursuit of you and all humanity. Throughout the pages, embedded in all types of literature, the Bible demonstrates divine pursuit. The centerpiece of all Scripture is the coming of Jesus Christ.

If you think about it, whether Christian or not, the world recognizes Jesus as the central person of history. Our calendars are marked as either BC, before Christ, or AD, the Latin abbreviation for after Christ. *

This makes Jesus the central figure of the Bible and all of human history.

Given this, it makes sense to begin reading the Bible to understand the life, person, and life-purpose of Jesus Christ. The first four books of the New Testament detail the life of Christ from four, different, literary perspectives. I recommend you start reading with the Gospel of John. You can locate its beginning in the Table of Contents.

Whether reading John for the first time, or the umpteenth time, or reading the Bible as a beginner or a long-time student, let me switch gears from what to read and offer thoughts about how to read, i.e. the discipline of reading the Bible.

As you would expect, there are numerous approaches to reading the Bible. I encourage you to do some research and experimentation, but a good place to begin is with a daily reading. I recommend YouVersion.com as it offers a selection of reading plans. Find the plan that suits you, and get after it.

It's important to read the Bible in volume. So, read a chapter at a sitting—or more. While the Bible is beneficial in snippets, you will realize greater benefit if you spend a devoted period of time daily to read Scripture and capture the general gist of what it’s saying.

When I read Scripture in any volume, here’s what I do: I go to one of my quiet places, open my Bible to where I’m reading, and whisper a prayer along these lines: “Father God, I’ve come to hear from you by reading your book. Would you please guide my thoughts, help me understand, and please facilitate how I apply what I read? Thank you.” Then I begin reading, believing God will answer my prayer.

I also read the Bible in order to study it more deeply. When I do this, I often focus on a paragraph. I will also spend time with a particular verse and its context. Other times, as I study, I consider a single word of Scripture. Such is the profundity of God’s Word. Nothing about it is a throwaway. Nothing justifies skimming over or dismissing anything in Scripture.

As you study, you have resources that fall into two categories: tools and commentaries.

Tools enable you to do the job of study. Like the tools in your garage, biblical tools sophisticate the kind of study you are able to accomplish. I’ll list some of my favorite tools at the end of this article.

Commentaries are a combination of study another person has done and their conclusions, opinions, and perspectives as a result. Commentary from a trusted and reliable source—with the operative words being “trusted and reliable”—is valuable… but not up front.

Go to Scripture on your own first. Do your own study.

After you believe you’ve exhausted your examination of a passage of Scripture, then it makes sense to seek outside input. I’ve listed a few commentary options at the end of the article.

Knowing your Bible is the inspired Word of God, it makes sense to consistently ask yourself a series of questions that will take you deeper into your reading. Here are the questions I utilize:

What is this passage of Scripture saying? This is a high-level thought, a general idea, a question indicating whether or not you are comprehending. If you realize you are missing pieces of understanding, use your tools to see if they provide insight.

For example, in your reading of the Gospel of John, Chapter 18 begins recounting the betrayal of Jesus by one of his followers named, Judas: “When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples. 2 Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. 3 Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.”

Where is the Kidron? Most Bibles have a collection of maps in the back. A search like this, “where is the ravine of the Kidron,” typed into your search engine will produce maps and guides to help you envision where Jesus and His disciples were in relation to Jerusalem.

The passage says that Judas arrived with the Roman cohort and officers. What’s a cohort? A quick search online indicates that Judas showed up with around 500 soldiers. Wow! This unleashes a whole series of questions: Why so many? What were the authorities worried about? How courageous was the Apostle Peter to draw the only sword among the disciples and attack? How did the Romans get involved—and why?

In addition to checking myself for reading comprehension—What is this saying?—I always ask: What is God telling me about Himself in this passage? After all, since the Bible is God’s writing about Himself, asking this question is clearly important.

Returning to John 18: That Judas showed up with 500 soldiers, tells you what about Jesus? That He doesn’t resist arrest and chides Peter for drawing his sword, tells you what? A bit later, Jesus asks the soldiers who they are looking for. They say, “Jesus of Nazareth.” When Jesus says, “I am he,” the soldiers all fall backward to the ground. What’s that tell you about Jesus?

After considering what a passage tells me about God, I ask: What does this passage tell me about me?

Thinking about John 18: As a Believer, I live in Jesus and Jesus lives in me. Given this, all that Jesus demonstrates about Himself on the night of His betrayal, is indicative of the divine resource living within me. How then shall I approach my day and the challenges it brings? The disciples struggled to believe in Jesus such that their belief transformed their behavior. Why? What did they not believe about Jesus and what did they fail to grasp about themselves as Jesus disciples? How do I avoid the same pitfall?

You can sense my final question in the previous paragraph: What do I do with this passage? Taking the message of the Bible as true, how does it guide my life today?

When my time reading the Bible is over, before I leave my quiet place, I say, “Father God, thank you for your Scripture. I trust you today and I trust you to make the words of your Scripture real and practical to me today. Thank you in advance. Now Father, it’s time to rock and roll.”

Each day, I consider Scripture. Each day, and with each approach to reading the Bible, I utilize the questions above. This is the discipline—the routine, the practice—of reading the Bible.

The next discipline we will explore is the spiritual discipline of personal reflection and journaling.

More soon—and the tools and commentaries I promised follow.

Tools:

For daily reading guides and devotional thoughts: www.YouVersion.com (online or an app)

For Scripture reference and translation comparisons: www.BibleGateway.com (online or an app)

For contextual insights without much commentary, Unger’s Bible Handbook.

For word studies: W.E. Vine, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary.

Note for *: For more on this, Preston Gillham, Swagger.

Commentaries:

Ryrie Study Bible, New American Standard Version

English Standard Version Study Bible

The English Standard Version Study Bible online (see app also)

The Blue Letter Bible online: www.blueletterbible.org