Why Is Bible Study Important?

One of the things that pastors are known for telling their people is that they need to read the Bible more. One of the secrets many Christians are least successful hiding from their pastors is that many of them don’t read the Bible at all. I don’t mean for this sermon to be a big guilt trip: “I know you’re not reading your bibles, so start doing what you’re told, or else!” Rather, I think the church has often done a poor job of helping people get started in the habit of regular bible reading. Today, I want to look at how to read the bible in a way that helps sustain your spiritual life.

The Problems

Not Enough Time

The first problem is often that we just don’t feel like we have enough time. We’re all very busy. Yet, we make time for important things. You probably brush your teeth every day, even though it’s not a fun thing to do. Finding the time to read the Bible is about prioritizing it as a necessary step in your spiritual fitness routine.

‌Cultural Weirdness

Another problem is that The Bible just seems weird. You don’t understand the customs, you don’t understand why people say what they say or react the way they react. And you have no idea why people feel the need to make long lists of who begat who. The Scriptures were written by and for people who were very different from us. They had different values, different understandings of how the world works, and different assumptions about what makes a good life. To read the Bible well, we need to educate ourselves on the world those people inhabited.

Option Paralysis

The final difficulty I’ll address here is knowing what to read. There are many books and many translations. Most people tell you that if you want to start reading at the beginning and take it in order, it’s a tough slog. That’s true. So there are strategies that help us spread out the tedious parts. We’ll get to that in a bit.

In English, we are blessed to have many different translations, but that can also be a point of indecision. So let’s quickly look at translations.

Finding the Right Translation(s)

A common question Pastors get asked is, “Which is the best translation of the Bible?” The answer is it depends. Most mainstream modern translations are great. But since we have so many, why limit yourself to a single one? Having multiple translations from different translational philosophies can be illuminating.

Some translations try to preserve the wording and the exact meaning of the original text to the best of their ability (word-for-word translations). The accuracy is nice, but there’s a trade-off. The translated text often sounds unnatural like something no English speaker would say, making the people in the story sound even more foreign to us than they already are. This is the origin of our idea that ‘religious language’ sounds different from non-religious language. Monte Python took a poke at this in their movie about the Holy Grail. Facing a terrifying, man-eating rabbit, King Arthur calls on the priests traveling with him to instruct him on how to use an ancient religious relic/weapon: the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

And the Lord spake, saying, ‘First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then, shall thou count to three. No more; no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt that not count nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight shall snuff it.’ (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

To its original audience reading the scriptures in its original languages, the Bible never felt so stuffy. But For all their faults, word-for-word translations are a helpful tool, especially in study. Some common translations that fall into this category are the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), the English Standard Version (ESV), the King James Version (KJV) and the New King James Version (NKJV)

Other translations seek to get the ideas across as clearly as possible while sacrificing precision for the sake of readability. We can call these thought-by-thought translations. Their advantage is that they are easily understood, but because they involve some interpretation, the theological biases of the translators have a greater effect on the translation. Common Thought-by-Thought translations include the New Living Translation (NLT) and the Common English Bible (CEB).

Some translations try to strike a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought. The most common translations in this category are the New International Version (NIV) and the Christian Standard Bible (CSB). Whether that’s the best of both worlds or the worst of both, I’m not sure.

A final Category would be a paraphrase. This tries to get across the overall gist of the passage, but to present it in a wholly new way that might cause familiar readers to see it in a new light. The two most famous paraphrases are the Living Bible (TLB) and the Message.

To see the different translational philosophies at work, let’s look at the same verse (Mark 1:9) in three translations:

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (New King James Version – Word-for-Word)

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (New International Version – Compromise)

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. (New Living Translation – Thought for Thought)

Which Translation is best? All of them. They all serve different purposes depending on what kind of Bible reading you’re doing.

Three Types of Bible Reading

How should we read the bible? It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you looking for a greater familiarity with the story so you can more easily discern whether ideas line up with the teachings of scripture? Are you looking to dive deep into a single passage so you can see what Jesus (or someone else) is saying about a topic of interest? Are you seeking to hear from the Holy Spirit whatever the Spirit wants to say to you? All three of these ideas are important and each involves a different way of reading the bible.‌

Devotional Reading

Devotional Reading involves reading with breadth more than depth. It’s the kind of reading we should (ideally) do every day so that we can fill our minds with God’s perspective on the world (as opposed to doom-scrolling X or saturating in cable news that is designed to fuel your outrage). Devotional reading usually means reading 1 or more chapters of the bible each day.

Personally, I try to complete a plan each calendar year to read through the whole Bible once. It’s a big book, so it takes about 10 – 20 minutes a day (I’m not a quick reader). Perhaps this is too much of a commitment for you. You can find plans that will go through the New Testament in a year (probably about 5 minutes per day) or the whole bible in 3 years (probably about 5 minutes a day too). The point isn’t to get through the Bible more times than anybody else so you can brag, rather it is the fill your mind with Holy Scripture so that it shapes you.

Recommended Resources

For devotional reading, I would recommend a bible translation that prioritizes readability over accuracy. Every mainstream modern translation is good enough. This isn’t about drilling down into minutiae. The NLT or CEB are good choices. If you are used to reading the NIV and don’t find its language at all daunting, it would be fine too.

I find that a bit of background about each book is helpful to have. A good study bible will have a page of notes before each book explaining the context and maybe the structure of the book. That can be enough. If you’re open to looking online, the Bible Project has a series of videos called “Read Scripture” available on YouTube that give a summary of each book. Being armed with a bit of background information can make each book more readable.

If you’re looking for plans Some places to look might be

• https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/
• https://www.bible.com/reading-plans
• https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/

‌Otherwise, you could get a reading study bible with a reading plan built in (The 1-year Bible, for example) or a study guide that doesn’t have the text and allows you to use your preferred translation (3-year bible reading plan).

Study

In Bible Study, we narrow the focus but increase the depth. When you study, you typically look at a single passage, rather than at several chapters. Generally, studying works best when you go sequentially through a whole book, rather than picking chapters. This is because when you look at a section, that section depends on what came before for context. So if you want to better understand Romans 8, it’s best to start at Romans 1 and work forward, so you know you’re tracking with the argument by the time you get to Romans 8. That way you’ll be less likely to misread the passage.

If you’re going to start studying, I would recommend starting with a short, straightforward book like Philemon, Ruth, or Jonah. When doing intensive study, the point is to drill down and learn the nuanced arguments the books are making, and to think about how these ideas make claims in our lives. So, for example, if I quickly read Paul’s letter to Philemon, I might pick up themes like how Paul wants Onesimus, a runaway slave, to own up to what he did so he can be reconciled to his master. I might notice how Paul asks Philemon to give Onesimus his freedom, (but freeing slaves isn’t really something we’re worried about today). If I study Philemon (probably something I might do over several sessions) I might spend time considering themes about how Paul appeals to Philemon to do the right thing (free Onesimus) without ordering him to do it and see how this mirrors God’s approach of telling us how we should live, but allowing us to freely choose to follow him. Or I might pick up on themes about how in the church we should have a different understanding of social status (we’re all brothers and sisters). Studying the Scriptures encourages us to dig deep so we can understand how this story should shape our story.

It’s not enough that we understand what the text says, but that we allow the text to challenge our assumptions, uncover our idolatries, and call us to a deeper faithfulness. Studying the Scriptures is something we should do in tandem with prayer.

Recommended Resources

While any mainstream translation can work, I would recommend a more word-for-word translation of the text for study. NASB, NRSV and ESV work well. The NIV is also decent (It’s not as precise, but since it’s the best-selling translation, it has the widest variety of resources available).  

Study Bibles

The first thing that would be helpful is a good study Bible. Study Bibles contain book introductions, maps, articles on tricky subjects, and footnotes that often explain things that might not be clear. Some good choices for study Bibles are:

• NIV: NIV Study Bible, NIV Cultural Background Study Bible
• ESV: The ESV Study Bible
• NASB: The New Inductive Study Bible (NASB)
• NRSV: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version

If you can swing it, having two different study bibles in different translations (Say, NIV and ESV) can be helpful.

Commentaries‌

Commentaries take bite-sized chunks of the text and explain them, often verse by verse. There are a wide range of commentary types. Some are extremely thorough and technical. I have, for example, a 4400-page 4-volume commentary on the book of Acts. It’s meant for scholars or people who need to dig in deep. For sermon prep, I mostly use multiple commentaries where a biblical book is covered in a stand-alone volume. A 1 or 2 volume commentary on the whole bible can be helpful.

• The Matthew Henry Commentary on the Bible (published 1704, is freely available on the internet, but it’s quite dated)
• The New Bible Commentary (by Carson, France and Motyer)

If you want to dig into a particular book, a single-volume commentary written with laypeople in mind, can be a great resource. Buy the commentary for your book of choice. Some good series for these would be the NIV Application Commentary (I have a few of these on my shelf that I can lend out) or the Story of God Commentary series.

Bible Dictionaries

Another helpful tool for studying is a Bible Dictionary. Some are illustrated, which can be helpful for visual learners. Bible dictionaries explain difficult words, and theological ideas or collect together all we know about specific locations or people. I have a couple on my shelf that I can lend out if people are keen.

Software

If you are the the type who wants to study and isn’t daunted by technology, finding a software suite to help with study can be helpful. The most common suites are Logos, Accordance and Olive Tree. I use Logos. It’s quite expensive to get the full feature package and a bundled library, but there is a free version available that comes with a few resources, and you can purchase, bibles, books, commentaries and more. Generally, these are cheaper than print books. A software Bible study package allows you to keep your reading and notes in a single place.

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina means “divine reading.” Lectio (for short) means reading a short passage (often a single verse or a few verses) and trying to be attentive to what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to you through it. Lectio Divina has 4 movements. You’ll read the text four times, each time with a different intent.

Read

First read the passage to make sure you’re aware of what’s in it. I try to read it very slowly. If the passage is familiar, you’ll be tempted to read it without paying attention. But Lectio is an opportunity for God to say something new. As you read, ask yourself what jumps out at you.

Reflect

Read it again, this time try to dig deeper. You might ask yourself what it might have been like to be present when it happened, or when it was first read. You might ask how your situation is like the situation of the characters in the story. When you finish reading, give yourself some time. Don’t try to steer your mind, but try to be open to what the Spirit brings to your attention.

Respond

Read the passage again, but this time pray as you do. “Lord help me not to fear when I’m in a situation like that.” or “Lord, forgive me for the way that I look to idols—things that aren’t you—for security and significance.

Rest

Finally, read the passage one, last time. Read with open ears to hear what the Spirit might be saying to you.

Putting it Together

Ideally, we should practice all three types of scripture reading. Devotional reading keeps our head in the story, study helps us dig deep so the text can challenge what we think of God, ourselves and our world and Lectio Divina opens us up to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Admittedly, doing all three each day is a stretch for people who rarely, if ever, open a bible, So perhaps aim to do a short devotional reading (1 chapter) a day and try to do 1 study session and 1 Lectio session per week. More would be better, but start manageable and try to expand as you’re able.

Reading the Bible is not a magic bullet to a mature and fulfilled spiritual life. The Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus’ day read their Bibles constantly but missed what God was doing. The most important thing is to read with a heart that is open to God’s words of encouragement and correction. If you read with such an open heart, I think the chances are excellent that God will change your life.