How to Read the Bible: Week Three

The Seven Healthy Habits of Bible Reading

  • Intro

  • Habit #1: ALWAYS keep in mind that your interpretations are fallible

    • You are not the only person who is trying their best to understand the scriptures
    • Never ever say: “The Holy Spirit told me this is what the Bible means.”
      • The Bible is our authoritative standard by which we judge revelation. Our revelation is NOT our standard by which we judge the Bible. Therefore, you need to read and understand the Bible first, and only then are you in a position to receive revelation from the Spirit.
      • Making personal revelation your interpretive method opens you up to “doctrines taught by demons”.
    • Practical considerations:
      • This “habit” is more of a mindset shift than a behavior.
      • A behavior you could adopt to practice this mindset shift is to regularly give honor to other people’s interpretations and to consistently scrutinize your own personal ideas (this is NOT saying you need to believe everything you hear, this simply means be humble).

  • Habit #2: Check your biases

    • Everybody has biases, you’re not an exception :)
      • Biases are strong pulls on your intellect toward certain conclusions that confirm your worldview.
      • The key to reading as unbiased as possible is NOT to pretend that you’re unbiased, but rather to recognize your bias so that you’re free to consider other viewpoints.
    • Biases to check for:
      • Religious Biases:
        • Denominational teachings
        • Church traditions
        • Spiritual experiences
      • The nation/culture you grew up in (America for most of us)
      • Your life experiences
        • Specific (events that happen to you)
        • General (gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, geographic location, etc.)
      • Education/study (both formal and informal)
      • Previous experiences with the text you’re studying (and other texts related to it)
    • Practical considerations
      • Go through this list of biases sometime and take a personal inventory of your biases.
      • Occasionally monitor how your life experiences have changed you; if you have done a gospel encounter recently, you’ve added a positive experience to your life that may affect how you read the Bible, take note of that; if you just went through a tough season, take note of that; even neutral experiences may change the way you view the Bible.

  • Habit #3: Read in community

    • Why read in community
      • Remember week one. To learn the original context of the communicators of scripture, we need help from those who have studied it. To make sure we’re applying the context to the original text properly, we need community.
      • Communities are built by God so we can build each other up and cover for each other’s weaknesses.
      • People who read outside of community are extremely vulnerable to weirdness or even heresy.
        • Cults (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc.)
        • “Culture of Honor”
        • Weird people
      • People who read within a strong community are not just corrected, but they learn things about the Bible they may have never found on their own (more on that in Habit #5).
      • You can’t escape community anyways, so embrace it and make healthy relationships.
    • Types of communities:
      • Local church communities: People who know you personally and are available to safely bounce ideas off of (both in house church and in Roots as a whole).
      • Scholarship: commentaries, books, podcasts done by scholars, and other teachings done by credible sources
      • Denominations: Communities of churches who work together for the mission of God and can make sure your local church community is not an echo chamber.
      • The interdenominational Church: Christ’s complete body of believers who all carry the Holy Spirit and meaningfully challenge each other’s ideas to help sharpen each other.
      • Church History: Christians from the past are still a part of Christ’s body even if they have passed on already, and they can provide valuable insights by “time-traveling” their teachings into the present day through their writings; the main value they bring is in asking different questions.
    • Practical considerations:
      • Find a few consistent sources that are quality research sources (see last week)
      • Be theologically involved in a house church
      • Find some friends who are part of different denominations (or at least people on the internet you can listen to who can teach you different ways of thinking)
      • If you have time, study some church history

  • Habit #4: Check your sources

    • See last week
    • Practical considerations:
      • Listen to last week’s teaching again to help you understand good vs. bad sources
      • Find a few consistent quality sources that you can rely on

  • Q+A and 5-minute break

  • Habit #5: Mass reading

    • Public reading of scripture
    • Paradigms about the Bible
      • Often our goals of Bible reading are:
        • To learn something
        • To get a revelation, or
        • To have an experience
      • Better goals of Bible reading are:
        • To understand the literary context of the entire book
        • To get to know the story of the Bible better
        • To understand themes
        • To put scripture into our minds
      • It’s not often productive to go looking for greater clarity, retention, or even a revelation
      • Good avenues for clarity, retention, and revelation come in the context of community (house church, listening to teaching, etc.)
    • How long it takes to read each book of the Bible at an average reading speed:

1. Genesis - 3.5h.png
26. Ezekiel - 3.75h.png
43. John - 2h.png
  • Practical considerations
    • Practice reading NOT for retention or understanding; practice for getting a general feel of whole books of the Bible (read a shorter book and ask yourself “what was the overall message?”; do this a few times)
    • Find creative ways to get large quantities of scripture into your mind (reading with others like the Biblical people did, audio bibles, tracing themes throughout the Bible, etc.)
    • If you want to spend time in one book of the Bible, treat the book as a unified whole
  • Sample study: Colossians in 3 months
    • Read through in NLT
    • Study some ancient context of Colossians in commentaries
    • Read through in NIV with some friends
    • Listen to some teachings on Colossians (Mike Heiser has a great series on it)
    • Study some themes using highlighters
    • Teach or host a bible study on Colossians
    • Read through in NASB

  • Habit #6: Read based on curiosity

    • The Bible you read is better than the Bible you don’t read
    • The Old Testament becomes so much easier to read when you realize the New Testament is wholly dependent on the Old to make any sense
    • Benefits of curiosity
      • Retention goes way up
      • Understanding goes way up
      • The quantity of scripture consumed goes way up
      • Negative associations with the scripture go way down
      • The interconnectedness between the books of the Bible becomes way easier to recognize
    • Practical considerations:
      • When deciding, first ask the Holy Spirit what you should read, then if nothing comes to mind, pick a book of the Bible you’re interested in
      • Think about what other books of the Bible you could read to make the books you already read make more sense to you

  • Habit #7: Role of prayer

    • Ask God for zeal for the scriptures
      • You can’t force love, you need to be wooed by God
      • Prayer is the key to every spiritual discipline:
        • Prayer (yes, praying for more prayer)
        • Fasting
        • Communion
        • Fellowship with other believers
        • Sex (yes, sex is a spiritual discipline)
        • Generosity (and other spiritual gifts like healing, prophecy, etc.)
        • Evangelism
        • This principle applies to reading the Bible regularly as well
    • Don’t feel the need to read every day; instead, feel the need to fall in love with the Bible
      • I don’t read every day, I go through cycles
      • Some people need structure to read every day, others need to read as inspiration comes to them
      • Either way, love is the way to sustainably input mass amounts of scripture into your heart
    • Ask and you shall receive; believe and you shall receive
    • Practical considerations:
      • THE GOLDEN HABIT ABOVE ALL OTHER HABITS: Every single time you feel that your love for the Bible has fallen, ask the Holy Spirit to help you fall in love again

      • Give yourself grace during seasons when the Bible isn’t as exciting as it used to be, just keep praying and let the Holy Spirit draw you in again
      • Don’t be passive, spend time with the scriptures until the spark lights again

  • Conclusion