How to Read the Bible<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
While I was serving as an associate pastor I wanted to equip my church with some basic tools in getting to the heart of the scriptures. One easy way to do that, I figured, would be to help our church get a better handle on how to read and study the Bible.

Since the Bible is unlike any other book ever written it is important to approach it properly. There are right ways and wrong ways of reading scripture, and must be taken in order to take from it what God intended. It is not a newspaper, or magazine, which bears just a cursory glance, but neither is it so obtuse, as many seem to fear, that it is unapproachable apart from some kind of academic preparation.

Theologians will tell you about the "perspicuity" of the Bible, a word which means exactly what it isn't, referring to the clarity of God's Word. Anything, however, which smacked of perspicacity, even in the slightest form, would undoubtedly be rejected by those I hoped to reach.

Helpful as they may be, I ruled out suggesting that anyone read an entire book like Leland Ryken's The Word of God in English, or Fee and Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Instead, I wanted to hand out some easily accessible principles with which to begin. I knew that in order for my tool to be a useful it had to be accessible without skipping on essentials. As you will see below, I eventually settled on a simple outline aimed at countering the oft cited notion that "one can read anything into the Bible they want."

Not wanting to reinvent the wheel I went online and Googled "How to Read the Bible." I anticipated gleaning some new insights for myself, as well as getting some ideas for organizing the thoughts I already had. The results that were returned, however, led me to quickly realize that I had either overestimated what I would find online, or the church was in need of some sober thinking on this most basic of Christian disciplines. I fully expected there to be any number of poor or even dangerous entries, but to my surprise I found precious few articles of value.

Two exceptions, which happily remain in the current top ten Google returns, were Charles H. Spurgeon's 1879 sermon, appropriately titled "How to Read the Bible," www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1503.htm, and a short list from the father of Methodism, John Wesely, taken from the preface of his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/bible.stm.  Both are well worth reading today.

As anticipated, poor and unbiblical advice is also prolific. The danger is that much of it comes couched in what are otherwise OK treatments of the subject. One piece of advice was "We should read the Bible as we eat an Oreo cookie, from the center out. Reading Genesis or Revelation last, not first." Suffice it to say, the Nabisco method of Bible study may be dunked.

Another gem was to start with the Gospels, "just don't read them all together, back to back." Huh? One of the best exercises I ever had from seminary was precisely such an assignment. Not only did I read all the Gospels successively, I immediately went back and read them all a second time. This exercise opened the scripture to me in a way few things have ever done since. I heartily recommend it to every serious Christian. 

Apparently, since my first foray online some four or five years ago, others have also been burdened with how to help in this most basic of Christian disciplines. This has resulted in a number of good articles becoming available if you can take the time to cull through them. Some of them are from familiar ministries like Intervarsity's article by Philip E. Friesen entitled, "How to Read the Bible, And How Not To." Despite my personal reservations for the New Living Translation its publishers have a good entry.
 
The Greek Orthodox Church has an excellent entry by Bishop Kallistos Ware; highly recommendable, with care to note the Orthodox distinctives. Added to these are now scores of entries by lesser known entities, and local churches, many with a heart for God's people to better know him through his Word.
 
However we approach such a glorious task, let us consider the sage advice from one pastor, David Wayne, who noted "One of the fundamental attributes of Scripture is its clarity, in our efforts to understand it, let's be careful we not obscure it." 

Here are my own suggestions. I don't pretend that all these ideas are mine, or even original in any way. They reflect much good thought from different sources. Where direct thoughts are borrowed I have tried to quote with notation. Where similar ideas merged from my own mind and others sometimes is not so easy to tell. Hopefully, however, there is nothing truly new here, but only that which reflects what has already been laid out in scripture.
 
The object from the beginning has only been to encourage the reading of God's Word.
 

 
1.      Read it like no other book you have ever read.
a.       Begin by praying for God to open your heart to his word, and for his understanding.
                           i.      Ephesians 1:17 "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better," (also Col 1:9).
                         ii.      James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him, ".
b.      The Bible is not to be read just for information; it is to be read in order so that we may be changed. Christ is the way, the truth and the life. When we follow him "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day," Prov. 4:18.
c.       Again, pray as you read. The scriptures are the Sword of the Spirit, and we can not handle this sword in the flesh. Therefore, do not try to do in the flesh that which can only be accomplished in the spirit.
2.      Read it with understanding. Note - This can only be fully accomplished by true believers.
a.       This may sound strange and perhaps even obvious; nevertheless, it is a necessary exhortation.   Matt 22:31 "have you not read what was spoken to you by God?" (also cf. 12:3, 5, and  19:4). Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who had surely read their Bibles. But they did not understand the meaning (Matt.12:7), and therefore Jesus rebuked them, and ultimately rejected many of them.
b.      James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."
c.       <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Reading with understanding MUST include meditation (thinking) on the word.
                           i.      Josh 1:8  "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
                         ii.      Psalm 119:27  "Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders."
                        iii.      "You will not get comfort to your soul out of what you do not understand… Pray to the Lord to strengthen your eyes before you dare to look into the eternal light of scripture." C. H. Spurgeon
d.      Pray for understanding and to be changed.
3.      Read it often.
a.       Josh 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-2,  "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked… But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."
b.      Psalm 119:97, "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long."
c.       Pray for understanding and to be changed.
 
4.      Study and search while you read.
a.       Jeremiah 33:3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' How shall we call, if not from the scriptures themselves? We all know from experience, and Peter confirms, that there are "things that are hard to understand," 2 Pet 3:16.
                           i.      2 Timothy 2:3 - 4   "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commanding officer."
                         ii.      Use other resources like dictionaries, and commentaries. God has given us many whom he has given greater gifts. As a body, he therefore expects us to depend on those who have greater gifting in areas where we are weak.
b.      Jesus tells us we must have greater righteousness then the Pharisees who also searched the Old Testament scriptures, John 4:39. They understood they could lead the way to eternal life, but refused to believe that they testified about Christ. Should we not search all the more knowing that all the prophets and the law point to Christ?
c.       Take notes.
d.      Memorize it. "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you," Psalm 119:11
e.       Pray for understanding and to be changed.
 
5.      Read it "with an eye peeled for the Gospel." C. J. Mahaney.
a.       All the law and the prophets speak of Christ.
                           i.      Luke 24:44 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
                         ii.      Rom 3:21 "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify."
b.      All scripture "predicts, prepares for, reflects, or results from the work of Christ." C. J. Mahaney.
c.       Pray for understanding, especially in the OT which is so rich in preparing the Church to understand Christ. He can be gloriously found in passages which may otherwise be obscure when not seen in the light of Christ.
6.      Read it like every other book you read.
a.       Start at the beginning and read it through. Do not start in the middle of some passage and expect to be fully enlightened. 2 Pet 1:20, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation."
                           i.      When we read without context we are more likely to incorrectly use scripture than when we are familiar with whole passages and books.
                         ii.      While it is not necessary to read in order from Genesis to Revelation, every Christian should make the effort to do so.
                        iii.      Nor does this mean we can only read whole books at a time, we should for the complete context, but it does mean reading entire sections of scripture which belong together.
b.      2 Tim 3:16 – 17 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. "
c.       Mat. 4:4 "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
d.      Pray for understanding and to be changed.
7.      Apply the word.
a.       James 1:22-23 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
b.      "The eye glances but the mind never rests. The soul does not light upon the truth and stay there. It flits over the landscape as a bird might do, but it builds no nest there, and finds no rest for the sole of its foot." C. H. Spurgeon
c.       2 Timothy 2:15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth"
d.      Pray for understanding and to be changed.