Growing up in my parent’s home as a child and a teenager, my mother made many meals for me. I don’t remember most of them, but I do remember that they were all tasty and nourishing. My mom was a great cook. Likewise, throughout my Christian life, I have heard many sermons and Bible studies and read the Bible far too many times to count. I don’t remember exactly most of what I heard or read, but I do remember that they were tasty and nourishing. Even if the sermon was not engaging, I wasn’t listening closely, or I was distracted in my reading, there was something to be gained because it was the Word of God coming into my heart.
It has been my aim to prepare tasty and nourishing sermons and Bible studies throughout the decades of my ministry. Some have been better than others, but it was my goal to be sure they were God’s true Word. I knew that most of my hearers would not remember what I said, but I was confident they would get some good out of them if it were the Word of God they were hearing. I have also encouraged the people under my care to read the Bible for themselves, knowing that though they may not remember much of what they were reading, it would help them because they were reading God’s Word. Exposure to the Word of God is beneficial. It is a blessing.
As followers of Jesus Christ, though, we want to get more than just some good from our time of Bible reading. We want to get the maximum good we can from the limited time we have to devote to Bible reading. Maybe we can devote more time than we do, but we all still have limited time. How can we get more out of our time in the Word of God? I have, for a number of years now, encouraged people to read their Bibles more and better. It has also been my claim that if a person reads their Bible better, they will read it more. Reading the Bible better is what we all should seek after. It should be a burning passion of our lives. The more we get out of our time in the Word, the more we will grow and be able to live for and serve God.
The pressing question is, how can I read the Bible better? The short answer is that we read the Bible better when we intentionally seek to get something tangible out of our time in the Word. We go to the Bible expecting to receive something from our time that will speak to us somehow. The way we do that is to slow down our reading. Maybe we will need to reread some verses. We aim to get the main point of the passage we’re reading. What is it that God is saying to me from this particular passage? We can summarize that in a sentence or two. Before I can understand what God is saying to me in the passage I’m reading, I have to understand what God is saying to everybody from that passage. That’s the main point of the passage, the timeless truth. Then, we can apply it to our own experience.
To understand the main point of any passage, we must understand the difference between what is descriptive and what is prescriptive. Every passage has some elements that describe what is going on in the passage. They are not meant to guide us but to help us understand what’s going on in the passage under consideration. Every book in the Bible was initially written to somebody or some group of people different from ourselves. The Bible was not written to us but for us. What is descriptive in my passage?
There are also some prescriptive elements in every passage. These elements prescribe what we should do under certain circumstances. They put us under an obligation for obedience. We must be careful not to make descriptions into prescriptions that bind our consciences and the consciences of others. Usually, the difference is easy to see, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two. An example is the animal sacrifices of the OT. Believers in the NT are not required to make animal sacrifices for the atonement of their sins. Jesus is the fulfillment of these sacrifices. It is his death that atones for our sins and not the death of an animal. The main point for us in the New Covenant is that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away our sins. We must trust him, follow him, and serve him.
The main thing to grasp in seeking to read the Bible better is finding the passage’s main point. Often, there will be several candidates for the main point. In the end, you may be unable to determine the main point. Having more than one main point is okay if that is the case. They will probably relate to one another in some way. The search for the main point is a search for what God is saying in the passage. As you read that passage over the years, you will grow in your understanding of it. You will deepen your grasp of how the passage fits into the story and message of the whole Bible.
Reading our Bibles with clarity and conviction while looking for the main point in each passage is the responsibility of every believer in Jesus Christ. If we are committed to hearing from God in our Bible reading, he will speak to us from his Word. We must take the extra time and effort to get the most from our time in the Word. When we do that, we will experience a true encounter with the living God. We will find the Word of God to be truly tasty and nourishing.