Have you ever googled ‘How to read the Bible?’ It seems a little weird, asking how to read a book. We sense though this is more than a book, it contains what we believe is God’s revelation to humankind, we believe it was inspired by God, and we believe it is our guide and our sustaining force.
We also believe it’s alive, it speaks to our spirit, it opens our heart and transforms our mind.
So in googling you will discover many point form approaches to reading and meditating on Scripture. And I have indeed given you my approach below. However the important ingredient is attitude. The steps are a guide, often not done in order, often performed without knowing.
My own Instruction Sheet on ‘How to read the Bible.’
Step 1 Pray
For help to understand. Wisdom on how to implement what you hear and learn. For freedom from past ideas. For faith to for a fresh revelation of truth.
For humility.
Here I am!
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” Psalm 119:18
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/four-prayers-for-bible-reading
Step 2 Read
But don’t just read. Read quietly.
Read aloud. Read again. Read with someone. Ask someone to read it. Listen to it.
Step 3 Imagine
Imagine yourself in this story, wearing the clothes of the hearers, walking their footsteps, living their fears and hopes. Imagine the noise streets or the quiet fields.
If it is a story, imagine listening to the storyteller. Imagine being a character in the story. If a poem, sing it. If a prophecy, imagine being among the hearers. If theology, imagine the writer’s heart, and seek his mind.
Step 4 Step Back
Think about the big story of Scripture. How does this reading resonate and echo our calling as a Church and as followers of Jesus, to live out the Gospel and to take it to the rest of the world.
What is the larger story? Many use a ‘missional hermeneutic’, Christopher Wright explains this:
‘In short, a missional hermeneutic proceeds from the assumption that the whole Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation.’ (Christopher.J.H.Wright, ‘Mission As Matrix’, 122)
Just as in the story of the two disciples in Emmaus in Luke 24:44-49.
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.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (NIV)
In short, the Bible is about God’s mission to us, and his then commision to us.
Step 5 Heart
What is God saying to me?
God’s mercies are new every morning. In the whirlwind that surrounds you what anchor is your spirit reaching out for, what grace is being offered, what new day is being promised, what sword has pierced your heart?
God’s word is alive. A light to our feet, a lamp to our path.
Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16, John 14:26, 2 Peter 1:3-4, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalm 25, Psalm119
Step 6 Onward and Upward
Pray for courage to not just hear the word but do it. Throughout history people mainly heard God’s word, reading was for the literate. The Hebrew word for listen ‘shema’ also means to obey.
Deuteronomy 11:13 says ‘And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul’ (ESV)
The NASB reads ‘if you listen obediently’.
The New Testament Greek word for listen is akouo. The word for obey is hupakouo – literally ‘to listen under’. To listen to or read the word, we need to listen under the guidance of God.
Matthew 7:24–27; Matthew 21:28–32; James 1:22–25
How I need to change my thinking today?
What truths of grace should I remember today?
What actions do I need to do today?
How I can pass on what I have learned to others today?
What promise can I hold I hold onto today?
A Final Word – Come to the Table
Remember it is attitude and discipline that count. Isaiah 55 should certainly help with attitude. With discipline, well hopefully a really good attitude will help as well.
Isaiah 55
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
