10 Tips for Better Bible Reading
How To Read Your Bible for a More Fulfilling Experience
How can you get the most out of your Bible reading? How can your Bible reading satisfy your hunger for knowledge, your thirst for spiritual vitality, and your desire to be conformed to the pattern of Jesus? What follows are the tips, tricks, hacks, and helps I’ve learned to level up your Bible study!
1. Read Whole Passages not Verses
Reading one verse a day or one verse at a time, though popular on some email lists and apps, is like eating a cake where somebody sends you the ingredients one piece at a time. Eating a cake then becomes the equivalent of eating three cups of flour one day, a cup of butter the next day, and two tablespoons of cinnamon the day after that. You are eating the stuff that goes into a cake, but you’re not getting the full cake-eating experience. It’s the same with the Bible. Eat whole passages, not isolated verses, or else you are at risk of taking verses out of context and missing out on the full experience of reading a book in its complete context.
2. Work through an Entire Book
Reading the Bible should be more like going on a quest than speed dating. In a quest, you set off on a journey, face trials, distractions, despair, and yet persevere to the end to claim the reward. Speed dating is more like, okay, “You’ve got five minute to convince me that you’re either a fun day out or definite spouse material,” which is rushed, quirky, and a little too desperate to impress.” When it comes to Bible reading, don’t look for a few quick things to impress you with from a biblical book, rather, graze upon the rich pastures of the word and gaze upon the beauty of the word. At like it’s a quest you want to finish, gather your team, sharpen your tools, and set off to reach the final verses.
3. Read Several Books Together
You might find it helpful to read multiple biblical books at the same time. In the very least, try to read through an Old Testament book and New Testament book simultaneously. It might sound weird, but believe it nor, reading through Leviticus at the same time as you read through Hebrew will actually be helpful. Learning about Old Testament laws pertaining to sacrifices will help you understand the atonement theology in Hebrews which is saturated in Levitical imagery. If you are really keen, try reading an Old Testament Book, the Psalms, a Gospel, and an epistle at the same time. If you do that, you’ll have many moments which are, “Huh, this thing in Numbers reminds me of that thing in 1 Peter” and vice-versa. By doing multiple Bible readings a day, you’ll learn the skill of using Scripture to interpret Scripture.
4. Read a Passage in Different Translations
When I’m studying a passage in-depth, I like to look at the Hebrew and Greek (because I can), but for people who don’t know original languages, using a literal translation like the NASB or ESV takes you close to the original text. But a translation like the NIV or CSB is probably better for a public Bible reading as it’s going to balance fidelity to the original languages with intelligibility in reading it. After that, I often consult a paraphrase, like The Message or The Living Bible, because it might have a striking way of putting something that is true to the original meaning even if a little out of left field. Having a mix of Bible translations in your diet of Bible reading can be very illuminating.
5. Study the Bible in a Community
You can’t skirt through the pilgrimage of faith with the motto, “All I need is me and my ESV!” It takes a church to raise a Christian. So you should study the Bible in a community of faith. That can include your immediate family, friends, para-church groups like university ministries, and most certainly your church. The church should be the place where you “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” as Paul says in Colossians 3:16. You can’t rely on the pastor or priest to tell you everything about the Bible. The priesthood of all believers means everyone – young, middle aged, and old – has something to contribute when it comes to understanding God’s word in all its fullness. The church needs less passive Bible consumers, and more people trained to “rightly explain the word of truth”.
6. Practice Public Bible Reading
To be a “Reader,” someone responsible for reading in the Bible in public worship, was once a noble church office, one I think we need to recover. If you would rehearse a speech delivered before the Supreme Court, the United Nations, or your high school graduation, then practice your public Bible reading as well. You do not have to be a trained voice actor, but if asked to read the Bible in corporate worship, try some inflection, vary your pitch, attempt to voice characters, emphasize keywords, and draw people into your reading. It will enrich the preaching of the sermon and the experience of the congregation.
7. Take Notes During the Sermon and Put Effort into Bible Studies
As a preacher, it is a little depressing when people fall asleep, but it’s even more depressing when I see people staring down into the luminous glow of their phones. So try to actually listen to the sermon, maybe even take notes, take heed, listen, learn, and love the Word. The same goes for Bible study. It’s not an intermission in your mid-weekly social catch-up. It’s your infusion of spiritual nutrients for the week. So put some effort into paying attention and participating, as much as for your sake as for everybody else in the group. In a world where we have shrinking attention spans, measured in moments rather than minutes, we need to recover the discipline of deliberate and intentional Bible study.
8. Lean into the Holy Spirit
Some things in Scripture are clear, while some things are not. So you need to lean into the Holy Spirit to provide illumination for understanding and insight into application. People need their minds opened, their hearts awakened, their hearts prepared to receive the Word.
9. Get a Good Study Bible
I’m a professional Bible scholar, but even I don’t know everything about the Bible there is to know. That’s why I will consult the odd Study Bible once in a while. Now there’s plenty of them out there and their quality varies greatly! The Study Bibles I recommend are the NIV Study Bible, CSB Study Bible, NRSV Harper Study Bible, Faithlife Study Bible, Timeless Truths Study Bible, and the ESV Global Study Bible. There are many more and that’s just a few I know about. These Study Bibles are useful for short introductions to biblical books, timelines, charts of things like the Herodian family, maps of Judea and Paul’s missionary journeys, locations of the seven churches of Revelation and more. Plus, they include notes on things like where is Capernaum or Shiloh, who was Xerxes, what is a Pharisee, and so forth.
10. Embrace the Suite of Digital Tools
We live in the digital age, so you don’t need the Englishman’s Greek Concordance or Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary in hard cover. Find some quality digital resources, apps, with great tools to help you with Bible study. In the very least, try out Bible Gateway, Olive Tree Bible Software, the Blue Letter Bible, and Logos. Get some tech to help you read, learn, and teach. A lot of it is either free or very cheap. You don’t have to read the Bible like we are in the ancient 190s or even the 1990s.
Conclusion
To finish, let me encourage you with the prayer of Thomas Cranmer:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.