Read your Bible! (src: Ichthys)

The Bible as our standard of evaluation (src: Ichthys)

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Verifying Bible teaching against the Bible

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This site, Ichthys.com, is a ministry devoted to Christian spiritual growth through detailed Bible study. One very important principle that should be accepted as an essential prerequisite to any directed Bible study such as this site provides is that Christians should read the Bible for themselves every day without fail!

The Example of the Bereans:

Acts 17:11 | translation from Ichthys

Now the [Bereans] were more honorable in character than the people of Thessalonika, for they received the Word with great enthusiasm, while examining the scriptures for verification of what [they were being taught].

Rather than criticizing these early believers for “checking out” the veracity of what had been taught to them by the apostle Paul, this verse actually praises them for doing so. And while it is clear from the Greek text that the Bereans are being applauded here primarily for their enthusiastic acceptance of the Gospel, this verse also - so far from condemning them for a lack of trust - actually commends them for their action. This verse plainly approves the practice of taking the time and interest to consult the scriptures in order to establish the veracity of what is being taught. We find this to be a most reasonable approach, for:

☑ If what is taught is really true, then the scriptures will clearly confirm it.

It is true that taking advantage of accurate Bible teaching is an important part of the believer’s spiritual growth. Indeed, that is the whole point of this ministry. Furthermore, the provision of Bible teaching is an undisputed ministry of God the Holy Spirit (Eph.4:11-16). At the same time, however, it is the responsibility of the listener to compare what is being taught with the Bible. To be sure, this should be done in a spirit of humility (as the Bereans demonstrated), but it should be done. No one who teaches the Bible should have a problem with this, for such a procedure is really the only way to keep everyone honest. As believers in Jesus Christ, we must ultimately place our faith in God and in the Word of God - Jesus, the living Word, and in the Bible, the written Word - not in man’s words.

Ideally, there will be no conflict between what your teacher teaches and what you read in the Bible as you check out the scripture references given to support a principle or doctrine. It is also true that there are many non-sinister reasons why you may feel there is some discrepancy between what is taught and what you read, and no one is advocating that you part company on the basis of minor discrepancies. At the same time, however, if, as you continue with the daily reading of your Bible, the “warning bells” begin to go off too frequently and too loudly, it is in the interest of your spiritual safety that you not ignore them. The apostle Paul even goes so far as to extend this warning to himself, establishing the principle that no track-record, even one as illustrious as his, exempts believers from continuing to apply the test of scripture to all Bible teaching:

Galatians 1:8-9 | translation from Ichthys

But if I myself - or even an angel out of heaven - should preach to you something out of keeping with what I have preached to you, let him be cursed!

Believers have the responsibility to place what the Bible says over what people (even well-intentioned and respected people) may say. Now this principle is impossible to fulfill without reading your Bible regularly. As believers, we are to “evaluate everything” (1Thes.5:21), “test the spirits, to see whether or not they are from God” (1Jn.4:1), and “assess” teaching and prophecy (1Cor.14:29). But how are we to do this without prior information? The fulfillment of these commands is impossible without a deep, solid grounding in the Bible itself.

Summary points and follow-on topics

Summary points:

  • In Acts 17:11, Paul commends the Bereans for checking his words against the scriptures. From this we infer that this practice of cross-checking what is taught against the Bible is not only “not wrong”, but in fact is very commendable for us as Christians. We ought to be doing this.
  • Nobody gets a pass in this. I don’t care how famous the teacher is, how many people believe them, and so on. What they say must always be evaluated against the Bible.
  • This process should be undertaken with humility, but it should be done. No exceptions. The truth is too important to risk.
  • It is impossible for us to properly verify Bible teaching against what the Bible says if we are not intimately familiar with what the Bible says. This would seem to be rather obvious, but it bears repeating because it is so important. We cannot do our jobs properly as Christians if we don’t regularly read our Bibles.

Follow-on topics:

  • Ignorance is no excuse here. We’ll talk more about the notion of excuses in a later segment, but I hope right upfront it is clear that we determine by our own hand how familiar we are or aren’t with the Bible. It is a matter of where we choose to put our focus here in this world.
  • If we are led astray by false teaching because we could not be bothered to familiarize ourselves with what the Bible actually says, then that is upon our own head. It is true that many cults and false teachers are extremely emotionally manipulative, and that people exploited by them are in some sense victims, and deserving of our sympathy. But nonetheless, if they did not take even basic steps to familiarize themselves with God’s Word, part of the responsibly for being led astray is upon their own shoulders.
  • We’ll talk more about cults specifically in a bit, but I should note that this extends to far more than just cults. Most churches, even if they are lukewarm and not terribly interested in serious Bible study, will still not get you into nearly as much bad stuff as the cults proper. But the same principle nonetheless applies: if you believe some false teaching just because your church teaches it or your pastor teaches it, well, you had the power to avoid such, if only you had compared their words against the Bible rather than uncritically accepting them.
    • Hyper-Calvinism comes to mind. Parts of it clearly contradict Bible verses right on the face of it. In my opinion, one of the only reasons this collection of teachings has stuck around as persistently as it has is because people proof-text specific passages and aren’t familiar enough with the Bible as a whole to see how incongruous these teachings are with God’s overall plan for humanity vis-à-vis the concept of free-will-faith.<!– — –>
  • This doesn’t mean you have try to nitpick your pastor’s teaching and go looking for flaws in some sort of misplaced crusade for a legalistic standard of perfection. The point is that many modern Christians seem blind to the fact that they have a mandatory personal responsibility to fact-check their Bible teachers against scripture, and are completely incapable of doing it properly because they very seldom seriously read their Bibles, and therefore have low overall familiarity with what it actually says. This is a very serious problem, and not just something to shrug off as “unfortunate, but whatever”.
  • As a very loose parallel, consider how silly it would be to take a class on Shakespeare but never read any of his works. Can you be said to “know Shakespeare” if all you’ve ever heard are other people’s opinions about what he wrote? Of course, Bible teachers doing it properly ought to be teaching God’s truth empowered by the Holy Spirit (rather than “just” their own opinions), but I hope you can see that common sense dictates that to “really understand Shakespeare”, you’d better actually read what he wrote himself. And so too when it comes to the Bible.
  • I would argue that much of what we are discussing here is becoming even more important to emphasize in our modern day. Some AI Chatbot’s summary of a Bible book is not the same as actually reading it. Some person’s 60-second TikTok summary of a passage is not the same as actually reading it. And so on. Our modern culture tends to de-emphasize the sort of deep, repetitive study of sources that is in view here—the kind that lets you paraphrase what the Bible teaches about various subjects off the top of your head, with very high accuracy. You can’t fake that kind of practiced ease in confidently sounding forth about “what the Bible says about topic X”. It only comes from years, even decades, of consistent daily Bible reading. (Supplemented by good Bible teaching, which we’ll talk about in a bit).<!– — –>
  • The neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists would point us to the idea of “neurons that fire together wire together”. In some senses, learning is nothing more than forming neural connections in our brains… which is impossible to do if you are missing the Bible-text-neurons (so to speak). If we were being cheeky, we might say “science proves that you have to consistently read your Bible to actually learn it!” Again, common sense, but it really is true.
Further discussion

The Bible is the touchstone with which we must evaluate the truth

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☑ The Bible is the touchstone with which we must evaluate the truth.

And it is not just appropriate passages which must be taken into consideration. We need to have a broad understanding and feel for the entire canon of scripture, its whole woof and warp. As in the famous riddle of the blind men and the elephant, if we only have a limited view of all that is actually in the Bible, our judgment is bound to be distorted. It takes disciplined, regular reading of *all *the Holy scriptures in combination with doctrinally accurate teaching to provide maximum protection from false teaching:

Ephesians 4:11-16 | translation from Ichthys

Christ Himself appointed some of us apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers in order to prepare all of His holy people for their own ministry work, that the entire body of Christ might thus be built up, until we all reach that unifying goal of believing what is right and of giving our complete allegiance to the Son of God, that each of us might be a perfect person, that is, that we might attain to that standard of maturity whose “attainment” is defined by Christ; that we may no longer be immature, swept off-course and carried headlong by every breeze of so-called teaching that emanates from the trickery of men in their readiness to do anything to cunningly work their deceit, but rather that we may, by embracing the truth in love, grow up in all respects, with Christ, who is the head of the Church, as our model. In this way, the entire body of the Church, fit and joined together by Him through the sinews He powerfully supplies to each and every part, works out its own growth for the building up of itself in love.

The Christ Test: What source of truth do we have, if not the Bible? How do we expect to be led to Jesus Christ, if not through the Holy Scripture? As the apostle Paul makes clear in the passage quoted above from the epistle to the Ephesians, the point of “embracing the truth” is twofold: 1) to avoid being taken in by false teaching, and 2) to develop a stronger relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. To put it simply, false teaching leads away from Christ, correct teaching leads toward Christ. This, then, is essentially how the believer must discern whether the teaching in question is correct or false. All teaching must pass the “Christ test”.

1 John 4:2 | translation from Ichthys

Any spirit [i.e. person, teaching, organization] which professes that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, but any spirit which does not profess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God.

That is to say, all correct teaching must start with this proposition, a proposition that includes and is based on the following corollaries, all or some of which false teaching inevitably denies:

  • that Jesus Christ is both undiminished deity and true humanity. [Rom.9:5; Col.2:9; 1Jn.5:6-12]
  • that He came into the world to die for all mankind. [Jn.3:16; 1Pet.2:24]
  • that His work was deemed acceptable by the Father. [Rom.3:21-26]
  • that we are saved on the basis of our faith in Him and in His work alone (and not by our own works). [Eph.2:8-9]
  • that apart from faith in Jesus Christ, there is no way to approach the Father. [Jn.14:6]
  • that the true believer in Jesus Christ follows Christ and His teachings throughout his life on this earth. [Matt.7:20; 1Jn.2:4]

This last point brings us back full-circle to the issue of reading our Bibles everyday. If we are to follow Christ and His teachings, we must learn about Him and about them. Our indoctrination or “discipleship” in the truth must thus come from two sources: 1) reading the Bible for ourselves, and 2) accepting the authority of legitimate, prepared Bible teachers. But even (and perhaps especially) in regard to this second source for learning about Christ and His teachings, all correct teaching is ultimately and fundamentally derived from the Bible. But how are we, as believers, to evaluate the correctness of what we are taught unless we make it a daily habit to go to the source of truth itself, for ourselves?

Let no one say, moreover, whether teacher or lay, that he or she follows Christ, not the Bible. For such a thing is an impossibility, and such a statement, therefore, a dangerous lie. How could it be otherwise? For just as Jesus Christ is the living reflection of the complete, luminescent truth of God, so the Holy Scriptures are the concrete expression of the person and the mind of Jesus Christ, given to us His saints that we might learn and know that truth:

The Bible is God’s Word:

Hebrews 4:12 | translation from Ichthys

For the Word of God is living and powerful; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even to the point of being able to divide the spirit from its earthly life and the marrow from its bones; it acts as a judge of our heart’s intentions and emotions.

The Bible, God’s Word, is divinely inspired by Him:

2 Timothy 3:16 | translation from Ichthys

All scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for admonishing, for correcting, and for training in righteousness.

The written Word of God is God’s truth and carries God’s authority:

John 5:39 | translation from Ichthys

Search the scriptures (since you assume by how you read them that you have eternal life)! These are the very scriptures that bear testimony about Me.

Jesus Christ is both the truth and the living Word of God:

John 14:6 | translation from Ichthys

I am the way, the truth and the life.

1 John 1:1 | translation from Ichthys

What we have seen from the beginning, what we have heard and seen with our eyes, what we have observed and touched with our hands - this is about the Word of life [i.e. Jesus Christ].

The written Word manifests Jesus Christ, the Living Word (through the Holy Spirit):

1 Corinthians 2:16 (cf. 1Cor.2:12-13) | translation from Ichthys

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct Him? But we possess the very mind of Christ [i.e. the Holy Spirit illuminating the scriptures which are Christ’s very thinking].

Therefore the Bible is the only sure witness to Christ:

2 Peter 1:16-21 | translation from Ichthys

For I did not follow concocted tales in making known to you the power and the coming return of our Lord, Jesus Christ, but was an eyewitness to His majesty. For when He had received honor and glory from God the Father, these words sounded forth to Him from God’s majestic glory: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased.” And these words I myself heard as they were delivered from heaven, for I was with Him on the holy mountain [cf. Matt.17:1-8]. Yet I consider the prophetically inspired Word [i.e. the Bible] even more reliable [i.e. than what I saw with my own eyes]. You too would do well to pay the closest attention to this [prophetically inspired Word], just as to a lamp shining in a dark place [cf. Ps.119:105], until the day dawns, and the Morning Star rises [i.e. Christ returns], pondering in your hearts this principle of prime importance: no single verse of prophetically inspired scripture has ever come into being as a result of personal reflection. For true prophecy has never occurred by human will, but only when holy men of God have spoken under the direction and agency of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible itself, not the writings or teachings of any man or organization, not the supposed eyewitness accounts of any third party, nor any vision, dream, prophecy or any other possible source of information, is the only proper standard of faith and practice for those who purport to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Summary points and follow-on topics

Summary points:

  • The knowledge we are called to have is not limited or specific. To do things properly, we need to have a broad understanding and feel for the entire canon of scripture.
  • The point of “embracing the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) is twofold: 1) to avoid being taken in by false teaching, and 2) to develop a stronger relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • False teaching fundamentally distorts some or all of these points about Jesus Christ:
    • That He is both undiminished deity and true humanity.
    • That He came into the world to die for all mankind.
    • That His work was deemed acceptable by the Father.
    • That we are saved on the basis of our faith in Him and in His work alone (and not by our own works).
    • That apart from faith in Him, there is no way to approach the Father.
    • That the true believer in Jesus Christ follows Christ and His teachings throughout his life on this earth.<!– — –>
  • If we are to follow Christ’s teachings, that brings us right back to how we know what those are. The only sure way to learn about Jesus Christ and His teachings is through the Bible. Because:
    • The Bible is God’s Word.
    • The Bible, God’s Word, is divinely inspired by Him.
    • The written Word of God is God’s truth and carries God’s authority.
    • Jesus Christ is both the truth and the living Word of God.
    • The written Word manifests Jesus Christ, the Living Word (through the Holy Spirit).
    • Therefore the Bible is the only sure witness to Christ.
  • The Bible itself, not the writings or teachings of any man or organization, not the supposed eyewitness accounts of any third party, nor any vision, dream, prophecy or any other possible source of information, is the only proper standard of faith and practice for those who purport to be followers of Jesus Christ. Full stop.

Follow-on topics:

  • The point that we need to know all of the Bible’s truth (not just a little bit of it) is very critical. Many complex teachings pull from multiple different parts of the Bible at the same time, and so it is that certain parts of the truth will be completely inaccessible to us until we have a proper appreciation for large cross-cutting swathes of the Bible’s teachings. Compare the general concept of emergence, which “occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole”. This is definitely true of biblical truth in a general sense, particularly in the areas of prophecy and eschatology.
  • One consequence of this fact is that you are going to need to be reading your Bible a lot. The Bible is not a short book… at all. So it follows that to get familiar with large cross-cutting swathes of the Bible’s teachings (like discussed just above), you are going to need to put in the necessary time.
  • And once you get to the end, you are going to need to start over again, to ensure that the knowledge you acquire stays fresh and accurate in your head. It cannot just be something you do once and then stop, as if that were enough.<!– — –>
  • As the study says, “What source of truth do we have, if not the Bible? How do we expect to be led to Jesus Christ, if not through the Holy Scripture?”
  • So, how exactly do we go about comparing Bible teaching to the Bible? That is, how do we properly use the Bible as our standard of evaluation when examining Bible teaching? Well the first and most important principle is seeing what the Bible teaching in question has to say about Jesus Christ.
  • Many false teachings flunk this very basic test right upfront.
    • For example, the notion that we are saved on the basis of our faith in Jesus and in His work alone directly contradicts a lot of what I would call “finger-wagging Christianity”. What does salvation have to do with consuming alcohol, dancing, and playing cards? The idea that people would even think to try to define salvation in terms of abstaining from these things is greatly misguided. It is not that sin doesn’t matter—it very much does (compare Romans 6). The point is that you can’t put the cart before the horse. In other words, while I would in fact be willing to argue that one can partake in certain forms of these three things without any sin involved, the wider issue with this legalistic line of thinking is just that we can never earn our salvation in the least, and anything that even borders on that is very nearly blasphemous.
    • As another example, consider those that hold that people can somehow be saved apart from Jesus Christ. This makes a mockery of God’s justice. Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for us in our place. Asserting that there was no need for the penalty to begin with makes all of Christ’s suffering fundamentally pointless, does it not? And if it wasn’t necessary for Christ to suffer how He did, doesn’t that make the Father a monster for sending Him to the cross anyway? Have people even thought through what they are believing here?
    • Etc.<!– — –>
  • I would say that a lot of this is obvious from even a very cursory reading of scripture, but actually a lot of these sorts of false teachings have millions of ardent followers. Just look at the prosperity gospel. It doesn’t seem to matter much that plenty of individual verses directly disprove the prosperity gospel; tons of people still wholeheartedly believe it.
  • And that brings us to the unfortunately true principle that most people do not want the truth. Not really. It’s too uncomfortable, and demands too much from us. That this point is true is obvious from how many people go chasing after things that are clearly false, as above. We know they aren’t reading their Bibles consistently because if they were, they wouldn’t be able to tell us with a straight face that Jesus wants their pastor to have a private jet, and that this is the Will of God.<!– — –>
  • As a closing point, many translations do not really do justice to this passage in 2 Peter 1:
2 Peter 1:16-21 | translation from Ichthys

For I did not follow concocted tales in making known to you the power and the coming return of our Lord, Jesus Christ, but was an eyewitness to His majesty. For when He had received honor and glory from God the Father, these words sounded forth to Him from God’s majestic glory: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased.” And these words I myself heard as they were delivered from heaven, for I was with Him on the holy mountain [cf. Matt.17:1-8]. Yet I consider the prophetically inspired Word [i.e. the Bible] even more reliable [i.e. than what I saw with my own eyes]. You too would do well to pay the closest attention to this [prophetically inspired Word], just as to a lamp shining in a dark place [cf. Ps.119:105], until the day dawns, and the Morning Star rises [i.e. Christ returns], pondering in your hearts this principle of prime importance: no single verse of prophetically inspired scripture has ever come into being as a result of personal reflection. For true prophecy has never occurred by human will, but only when holy men of God have spoken under the direction and agency of the Holy Spirit.

  • In verse 19, the Greek has καὶ ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον, “Yet we consider the prophetic word more reliable”. Because the adjective βεβαιότερον is a comparative, failing to translate with that comparative sense is a mistranslation, in my opinion. I can forgive the translators though, because this passage is a bit hard. The thing that is being compared is what Peter saw with his own eyes during the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8). That is what Peter is saying the prophetic word (i.e., the Bible) is more reliable than. The rhetorical point then is that we should trust the Bible over all personal experience and observation, since none of us can claim to have any experience more impressive than observing the Transfiguration in person like Peter did.
  • In terms of logic, this is the idea that if A is more reliable than B, and B is more reliable than C, then A is necessarily more reliable than C. If you let A = “The Bible”, B = “Peter’s personal experience in witnessing the Transfiguration”, and C = “any other personal experience we might have”, then you can see that a plain reading of this passage clearly teaches that we need to put the Bible above all personal experience, and trust it more than even that which we see with our own eyes.
  • And this is why the Bible is the standard of evaluation in all things. In a proper Christian epistemology, it is the ultimate foundation for absolutely everything. All statements have to pass muster not just with some verses, but all verses across the entire Bible. Everything needs to be be compared against the Bible in this way, without exception.
  • And to be able to make such determinations accurately (i.e., in order to properly prioritize this source of ultimate truth that is more dependable than even our physical senses), we have to consistently read our Bibles. QED.
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Excuses people give for not reading the Bible (src: Ichthys)

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Checklist of Excuses for not Reading your Bible:

You probably have a telephone. You probably talk on it most days.

But do you read your Bible every day?

You probably have a radio. You probably listen to it most days.

But do you read your Bible every day?

You probably have a television. You probably watch it most days.

But do you read your Bible every day?

You probably take a newspaper. You probably read it most days.

But do you read your Bible every day?

We live in a world filled with modern conveniences such as the ones mentioned above. It is perhaps ironic that they make such heavy demands on our time and attention at the same time that they grant us opportunities unavailable to former ages. Yet despite the disadvantages of the modern world and the demonstrably negative side of technology, it is beyond argument that we have at least one important advantage that believers in the first century lacked: the general availability of the Bible.

Maybe in the ancient world they had an excuse or two:

  • Cost: A complete copy of the scriptures was well beyond the ability of the average person to afford in a lifetime. This was partially because of the extreme cost of materials (especially in the case of vellum; believers occasionally scribbled favorite verses on potsherds as a way to have some small portion of scripture for themselves).
  • Time: The printing press is a comparatively modern invention, and in the days following the ministries of the apostles, any new copy of the Bible (or portion thereof) would have to be painstakingly produced by hand, one letter at a time. Moreover, with the ancient pen and ink, copying by hand was far more difficult than it would be today, and took much longer, requiring, for all intents and purposes, a professional.
  • Canon: The entire canon of the New Testament scriptures took some time to be collected in its entirety, and so all the books of the Bible were not immediately available, even to the rare individual with extensive resources.
  • *Literacy: *Even if one had access to a copy of the Bible, literacy was not universal and could certainly not be taken for granted (especially among slaves and freedmen who formed a large segment of the early believers). Even for those who did have some education in Greek, reading was more laborious than today. Script was less legible and scrolls were cumbersome, making reading more of a chore (the codex or book form being invented only later).<!– — –>
  • Translation: What if your language was not Greek? It took time for the Bible to be disseminated and translated into contemporary languages (like Latin, Syriac and Armenian). And we know from the remains of the ancient versions that the accuracy of the exemplar (copy text) and of the translations themselves was no small issue. Even if your native language was Greek, you still had to make use of a translation of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint), a Greek version of the Hebrew and Aramaic original that often diverges radically from its archetype.
  • Accuracy: Today, when we read from one of the standard versions of the Bible, we can check the introduction and see that with few exceptions the translation has been made by a large group of highly qualified individuals, working from textual exemplars that exhibit a very high degree of accuracy. In the ancient world, you would have to take what you could get (and some manuscripts, as well as versions, had serious problems).

But despite facing obstacles and disadvantages we seldom consider, these early Christians were extremely thirsty for the scriptures. Such was their desire for the Word that in spite of Rome’s organized persecution and destruction of copies of the Bible, a wealth of manuscripts, papyri and other witnesses to the text of the Bible have survived from antiquity. In fact, the Bible is by far the best preserved and most substantially witnessed and documented text to have come down to us from the ancient world. What are our excuses in the face of such an example?

  • But I get that at church.

One of the ways the early Christians compensated for their lack of personal copies of the scriptures was to read extensively from the Bible as part of the church service. “Devote yourself to reading”, Paul tells his young protege Timothy (1Tim.4:13), and it was not uncommon for early congregations to hear the entire Bible read through in the course of each year. This is not the normal practice today precisely because we have our own copies of the scriptures.

  • But I’ve already read it.

There are those around world who are too poor to own a copy of the Bible. If you didn’t have it on your shelf, my guess is that you’d soon discover just how precious the Word of God is to you. You would then give much indeed to be able to read it again, and again.

  • I find it hard to understand sometimes.

There are those around the world still today who are illiterate and unable to read the Bible for themselves at all. There are others whose political circumstances make it difficult to have access to teaching and other resources that might help to explain the scriptures (believers in China, for example). We who have access to myriad opportunities for Bible teaching and unlimited access to books about the Bible should recognize our blessings on this score, trusting God and praying to Him to lead us into understanding (and the legitimate activities that bring it).

  • I’m just too busy to read it.

There are those around the world who are being persecuted for their Christian faith and prevented from studying the Bible as they would like (in the Sudan, for example). Given our relative advantages, we should make the time to learn about God and His love for us. If we don’t make a habit of taking time out to read the Bible, in what way are we fulfilling the Lord’s command to “stay on the alert” (Matt.25:13)? Without keeping our minds close on the scriptures, we run the risk of being open to the dangers of false doctrine and deception.

Summary points

Nowadays, we have an endless list of things to distract us. You can tell the original text of this study was written a while back because it only mentions talking on the phone, listening to the radio, watching television, and reading the newspaper. Nowadays we also have social media, streaming services, video games, and more to distract us… and smartphones always on us. It is in fact even worse now than several decades ago. If we want to, we can endlessly drown ourselves in distractions. We will never run out of options for doing so. Not even close.

  • But do we read our Bibles consistently?
  • Technology brings not only the opportunity to study the Bible more deeply and efficiently than ever before, but also the opportunity to distract ourselves more effectively and completely than ever before. So which will we choose?

Unlike nowadays, throughout most of history, the common man did not have easy access to the Bible:

  • It was prohibitively expensive.
  • Until the invention of the printing press, making copies of the Bible was done by hand by professional scribes, and took a very long time. (Which is largely why Bibles were so expensive).
  • It took a while for all books of the canon to be widely distributed across all the territories in which the gospel had spread (probably especially to the somewhat more remote regions).
  • Literacy in antiquity was much lower among the general population, and the lack of books proper also made reading much less convenient generally (since scrolls and other collections of writing are not as easy to use in practice).
  • It took a while for the Bible to get translated into various other languages.
  • Early translations were not always nearly as accurate as the mostly excellent translations of today (which are made by large groups of full-time professional scholars who have access to the earliest and best manuscripts).

But despite all these very-real disadvantages, people in the early church prioritized the Bible so much that it became the best preserved text document of all history, even in the face of early Roman persecution of Christianity and book-burning relating to such. I should further note that no other historical document even comes close; this is not a minor lead we are talking about here, but several complete orders of magnitude.

So that was them. Despite serious disadvantages, they prized the Bible in keeping with its central importance. What about us? Oftentimes, we make excuses:

  • “I get that at church”
  • “I’ve already read the Bible”
  • “I find it hard to understand sometimes”
  • “I’m just too busy to read it”

The sad truth is that we oftentimes take the Bible for granted. We do not appreciate that we have been given a blessed opportunity to freely study God’s Word, in a way that some people even in our modern world are not able to (for example, due to illiteracy, political persecution, or other things like these). Do we even realize our great privilege in this?

Follow-on topics

Prioritizing Bible reading in our lives

There are many things to talk about relating to all this. The elephant in the room is the fact that most (and I mean that in the proper statistical sense of greater than 50% of) self-professed Christians do not read their Bibles very much. According to a 2024 study from Lifeway Research, about 70% of Evangelicals read their Bibles at least once a week. Only around 37% say they do it every day.

Evangelicals are the most Bible-focused division of mainstream Christianity by a wide margin, which means that if even among this group we are barely over a third, what about everyone else?

What’s more, the methodologies of studies like this one very seldom analyze how much is read each time the Bible is opened (for example, a single verse vs. a chapter or more). If what we are interested in tracking is Bible reading involving larger chunks of scripture (such that one might actually read through the whole Bible in a time-frame faster than a decade, say), I’d guess that sort of paradigm only composes a small fraction of the overall “Bible reading” reported by survey participants.

Then there is the fact that the numbers are probably already skewed high relative to reality (cf. “Survey estimates of normative behavior—like voting, exercising, and church attendance—often include substantial measurement error as respondents report higher rates of these behaviors than is warranted”, from this study).

These two observations (i.e., the fact these studies aren’t controlling for the length of what is being read, and the tendency for self-reporting in studies like these to have substantial measurement error in regards to behaviors that are perceived to be “prosocial” to the group being measured—like Bible reading for Evangelicals) have nothing to do with pessimism, but are plain statistical fact.

If we do introduce some pessimism in this discussion though, the situation is even more grim. What I mean is that not everybody that reads even a full chapter of the Bible (so a longer chunk than just a couple verses) is really engaging in any sort of thorough, in-depth study—which is the only sort that will yield more than a passing acquaintance with scripture in the long-term.

I am not trying to discourage people from reading the Bible because they are “doing it wrong”. Far from it! Instead, I am saying in this that we need to approach it as God’s Sacred Word, and take the time we spend in it seriously, rather than rushing through it as a chore just to get it over with.

As an example, I find that I cannot typically read much more than a couple verses before bumping into a question or something to look up, no matter how many times I have read some part of the Bible. If you feel like you have no questions or avenues to dig deeper in the text… are you really taking the care to read closely?

“But Steven”, you might say, “If I actually do things this way, I’ll quickly accumulate pages upon pages of questions. Who do I ask then?”

This is what pastor-teachers are for in the body of Christ, and older Christian mentors that you look up to spiritually. It could even just be Christian friends who you know are spiritually mature. The fact that a lot of modern Christianity does not really commonly include what I would term “constantly asking questions about the Bible” does not mean that it shouldn’t be part of our spiritual growth, as I see things.

Only by putting in the time to “dig” will we make deep progress in the truth. God makes us work for it, and that is very intentional on His part (cf. Matthew 13:10-17). So are we willing to put in the work?

“But I’m too busy”

Another area to discuss is the specific excuse of “I’m too busy.”

Some people really are busy out of necessity, and sort of have their hands tied. For example, a single mom raising three kids and working two jobs to support them.

But for most of us, our supposed busyness is basically entirely self-inflicted. It’s a lame excuse if you even look at it for half a second. Why? Well, if you add up all the time you spend each week:

  • Consuming fiction of any sort (TV shows, movies, books, audiobooks, whatever)
  • Watching sports or e-sports
  • Browsing social media like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, whatever
  • Playing video games
  • Hanging out with friends (not “support network activities” like talking through spiritual matters or stuff going on in each others’ lives, but more the sort of social interaction without any particular practical end purpose)
  • Etc.

What does that number come out to be? If you’ve never tried to measure this, I’d encourage you to give it a try, being brutally honest. You might be shocked by the true numbers.

I bet most people spend tens of hours on the above every week, but maybe only a couple hours on the Bible every week, if that.

We can sugarcoat things all we want, but at the end of the day, it is idolatry when we put the things of the world above God’s truth on the throne in our hearts. Full stop.

We need to stop deluding ourselves, and take ownership of our spiritual growth… or lack thereof. God will take us just as far as we are willing to go, but not if we are too lazy to even open His Word consistently.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Christians are to have no time for rest and relaxation. But clearly we need to put our money where our mouth is. It’s a matter of proper priorities, and not being terribly hypocritical in our witness as believers. If we say we believe the Bible is the center of all we do as Christians, well then do we spend our time like we actually believe that?

I should note that the actual “ask” in the Christian life is even bigger than just this; reading the Bible is in fact only the beginning, the very first baby step. To make serious progress in spiritual growth, you are also going to need to be praying consistently, and also taking in good, solid Bible teaching that is deeper than surface-level. (The in-depth bit is important to emphasize, and is where many modern churches fundamentally fail, in that there is more pop-psychology, anecdotes, etc. in their so-called Bible teaching than actual scripture).

It takes all three things together done consistently to make substantial progress in the truth. There are no shortcuts in any of this. It is only faithful consistency for years, decades… really until we die and see God on the other side. That is the only way to live up to the perfect standard to which we are called (Matthew 5:48).

Rather than feeling depressed at how far short we may fall at the moment, I think it is best to find comfort in the fact that we will always have room to grow in this, and will never “max out” our potential to receive ever greater eternal rewards for following God more and more zealously.

In short, God will help us walk in the paths He has laid out for us in all this (i.e., His power, not ours), but we do have to use our free will to hand over the reins of our lives to Him, and prove it in how we choose to spend our time in this world.

None of us is even close to perfect in how we allocate our time and focus, myself certainly included. But my own inadequacy and hypocrisy do not mean that reality is any different than what we have just covered. We all need to hear this inconvenient truth, and strive to keep it firmly fixed in our conscious awareness rather than letting our self-serving minds bury that which points to us not being nearly so serious as Christians as our lips say we are. Only by refusing to stick our heads in the sand and go back to being distracted, pleasure-addled automatons (convinced somehow that we can actually be “good Christians” without ever doing any of the hard work involved in such) will we be able to see the pressing need for us to focus upon God’s truth over the weeds of the world.

Further discussion

Review Questions

Coming soon!

Ignorance of the Bible equals recipe for a cult (src: Ichthys)

Coming soon!


Specifics relating to reading the Bible (src: Ichthys)

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Video

Summary

In this lesson, we examine many practical matters related to Bible reading, such as discussing the utility in re-reading parts of the Bible we have already read, whether we can trust the accuracy of the English Bible translations available to us, how Bible teachers and the Holy Spirit interact with and enhance our Bible reading, the pros and cons of various English versions (like the KJV, NASB, NIV84, etc.), and various other miscellaneous tips and suggestions.

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Content

Audio clip from Ichthys

Quote from Ichthys

Reading Your Bible

1. Read and Re-Read: The main point is just to get to actually reading your Bible for yourself on a regular basis. The more you read it, especially the more you read it again and again, the more good things start to happen. You find yourself becoming familiar with the contents, the themes, the tone. More and more you discover links between the ideas and teachings scattered throughout this complex and wonderful book of books; more and more of your questions are answered as you build a framework of Bible knowledge that acts to solidify and intensify any accurate Bible teaching you receive (while also providing a hedge against false doctrines and teachings). The more you read it, the more everything begins to make sense. The principles of truth you know are reinforced, illuminated and deepened. You find encouragement and insight into the person of God on every page. The more you read, really open you heart and read, the more you move closer to God in every way. Let the Word of God, sweeter than any wild honey, sink deep into your soul, into the very foundation of your mind and spirit, until the words of God become an inseparable part of all your waking thoughts.

2. Worries about Accuracy: Do not be overly concerned about the issue of the veracity and reliability of the English translation of the Bible you are reading. In the upcoming “Essential Doctrines of the Bible” outline and series, we will have occasion to discuss in some detail the text and canon of the scriptures (see also the note below on versions), but for now you may be assured that your standard Bible will be quite adequate for your purposes. To use an analogy, if we were to become concerned about our dinner and take it to a microbiology lab for exhaustive analysis, we would probably find out that while it did contain some minute impurities, these would not pose any significant threat (and surely the threat of refraining from eating at all would be far more serious!). This is the case with most widely available versions of the Bible. Certainly, before becoming teachers we would want more detailed information (knowledge of the original languages upon which the translations are based, for example). But for personal spirituality and growth, the Bible you have is good, solid food. Not partaking of it is the only serious danger, for by reading it we build our relationship with God day by day as we continue to learn about Him and His Son through the Word He has given us.

3. Help from the Holy Spirit: Just as the Bible is the Christian’s ultimate standard, so the Holy Spirit is his ultimate teacher. As believers, when we read the scriptures (our visible guide), we are assisted by the Holy Spirit (our invisible guide: 1Thes.4:9; 1Jn.2:27). So when we read the scripture, we should not approach it as a chore to be gotten through, but rather eagerly, as an opportunity to learn. We should take time to read for meaning, to stop and think, reflect and consider what we are reading, and to allow the Spirit to teach us about God from the Bible. After all, the Holy Spirit’s ministry to our lives will be most effective when He has something to work with, some spiritual capital and understanding of scripture to use as leverage in guiding and directing us. The Holy Spirit works with truth - not surprising as we are told that the Bible is the “sword of the Spirit”, the weapon with which we believers are to confront all the falsehood and evil of this world (Eph.6:17).

4. Help from Human Teachers: Just as the effectiveness of the Spirit’s ministry is increased proportional to our intake of the Word, so the process of spiritual growth can, should, and ultimately must be accelerated by another essential element in God’s plan: prepared persons with the gift of teaching. Ideally, these three elements work harmoniously together: the individual Christian reads the Bible diligently under the influence of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, while also availing himself of doctrinally accurate Bible teaching on a regular and systematic basis. In fact, if any one of these three elements is removed, spiritual growth suffers (at best). Without the Spirit’s ministry, the things of God seem to be nonsense and meaningless (1Cor.2:14); without proper teaching, the believer is necessarily limited to the more obvious and basic principles that he can glean on his own from scripture (milk, as opposed to solid food: 1Cor.3:2); without a personal program of reading the Bible for himself, the believer is both largely deprived of daily reinforcement and communion with God’s truth, and at the same time vulnerable to inaccurate or untrue teaching (Eph.4:14).

These issues are to be discussed in more depth in our upcoming Essential Doctrines of the Bible series, but for now let the principle stand that all believers should take pains to:

  • Maintain fellowship with God in the Holy Spirit (confessing their sins to God whenever necessary that this fellowship be not hindered: Eph.5:18; 1Jn.1:9).
  • Maintain the habit of regularly receiving scriptural Bible teaching from a source they have tested (Jas.1:19-21; Heb.10:24-25).
  • Maintain the daily practice of reading and searching the scriptures for themselves (2Tim.3:16; Heb.4:12).

5. Versions and their Veracity: As mentioned above, most general versions of the Bible (that is, versions that are not produced by a specific group for the essential purpose of proving that group’s points) will serve admirably as daily companions for scripture reading. Probably the four most popular and widely available English translations of the Bible are:

The King James Version (KJV)

  • Advantages: unquestioned scholarship; italics for supplied words; creatively ambiguous, reflecting ambivalent constructions in the original languages.
  • Disadvantages: too far removed from contemporary English to be easily understood.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV)

  • Advantages: a scholarly production; smooth, homogeneous, literary language.
  • Disadvantages: the translation is a bit too vanilla and lacks impact; preference is sometimes given to liberal scholarly theories over the actual original texts.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB)

  • Advantages: the best “literal” translation in modern English.
  • Disadvantages: a far from seamless style; the very desire to promote literalness over meaning results in instances of obscure and misleading translation.

The New International Version (NIV 1984)

  • Advantages: the best “real English” translation available; its insightful approach to translation makes this version the most powerful “read” of the Bible available. N.b.: These comments are applicable only to the 1984 edition, not to the sometimes radically different and in many ways inferior 2010+ edition now in the process of being produced.
  • Disadvantages: this is also the most hazardous version to use, because its daring translations often give a misleading sense; when using this version, it is best to keep another Bible handy and double check “surprising” passages.

But why limit yourself to one? It would be helpful to read several, rather than the same version over and over. This will enable you to get a slightly different take and new insights from the different translations. My own feeling is that the NASB is perhaps the best version to read first, the NIV the best to read second.

6. Suggestions on Specific Procedures:

  • Try to do at least a little bit every day. Its much better to be consistent with reading a chapter or two of the Bible day in and day out, than promise yourself to do much more (from the best of intentions), then get frustrated and lose your momentum should life interfere with your plans.
  • Try to set a specific time and place. Make Bible reading a regular and inviolable part of your routine - like your morning coffee or paper or exercise. Make it a habit, preferably at a set time in the same place where possible. You probably brush your teeth every day, maybe more than once. Reading the Bible every day is at least as important as most of our daily routines (and even better for us too).
  • Read several sections at once. A common stumbling block for those who set themselves to read the Bible regularly is the length and complexity of the Old Testament. Consider reading several books of the Bible at once (be sure to include something from the New Testament). A simple approach is to read two chapters a day: one from each Testament. That way you’ll get through the New Testament several times before completing the Old Testament once, but that is perfectly fine since the New Testament is the more concentrated and explicit revelation of Jesus Christ. Many Bible bookstores sell multiple string bookmarks that will easily allow you to read a number of books of your Bible at once without losing your various places.
  • Read for meaning and understanding. Don’t rush through your Bible reading time. Better to read one verse and get something from it than three chapters whose contents you can barely recall afterwards just to “get through it”. Reading your Bible should be an enjoyable activity - more like leisure than work, even if it is good for you. Give yourself the chance to understand and be inspired and instructed by what you read. Try to keep a good attitude whenever you sit down to read your Bible. And don’t worry about memorization. It is always more important that you understand what you read than that you can remember it word for word (the two definitely do not go together). After all, you are reading a translation of the original texts; there are many such translations and all are worded differently, so it is clearly the idea, not the exact wording, that should be the focus of our efforts. Memorization can be useful, but if it is a choice between continuing to read or going over the same few verses until they stick, you are better off moving forward with reading.
  • How you do it is not as important as that you do it. For spiritual safety and spiritual growth, there is no substitute for reading the Word of God.

Summary points

Read and re-read:

  • Reading the Bible consistently does wonderful things for us, in all sorts of ways. As we build up the store of biblical truth in our hearts, we will have a much easier time keeping it constantly in our thoughts and hearts, and using to guide our path in life according to God’s Will.

Worries about Accuracy:

  • Most widely available translations of the Bible are of high quality, and will not cause many problems. This doesn’t mean they are perfect, but it does mean that it is much better for us to err far, far more on the side of reading the translations (and cross-referencing others here and there if something seems “surprising”) than to turn our nose up at them (and thus all Bible reading, as a consequence) because of minor imperfections.

Help from the Holy Spirit:

  • The Holy Spirit quickens our understanding of spiritual truth—not only convicting us as to what is true, but also helping us understand the truth, and apply it in our lives. This is not some academic process we engage in on our own, but is guided from first to last by the influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And in this, the Holy Spirit is able to help us more effectively the more spiritual truth we have learned and believed in our hearts; it is no exaggeration to say that the truth of the Bible is the “capital” by which the Spirit operates in our lives. If we add more truth to our “storehouse”, the Holy Spirit is better able to work within us as individuals, and also use us to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.

Help from Human Teachers:

  • If the Holy Spirit is our primary helper in the process of spiritual growth, then Bible teachers are the teaching assistants. The Bible, the Holy Spirit, and gifted/qualified/prepared Bible teachers (who teach the Bible accurately and in-depth) are all three essential parts of learning and growing in the truth, with none being optional. Without the Spirit’s ministry, the things of God seem to be nonsense and meaningless (1Cor.2:14); without proper teaching, the believer is necessarily limited to the more obvious and basic principles that he can glean on his own from scripture (milk, as opposed to solid food: 1Cor.3:2); without a personal program of reading the Bible for himself, the believer is both largely deprived of daily reinforcement and communion with God’s truth, and at the same time vulnerable to inaccurate or untrue teaching (Eph.4:14).

Versions and their Veracity:

  • Different versions/translations have their own pros and cons. At the time this study was initially written, Dr. Luginbill listed some pros and cons with regards to the KJV, the RSV, the NASB, and the 1984 NIV translations of the Bible into English. Nowadays, we also have the NKJV, the ESV, the NLT, the 2011 NIV, and the HCSB/CSB, among others.
  • Some versions are more “literal”, and seek to preserve exact wording more. Others try to go for translating overall meaning rather than specific words. The former approach can make translations seem a bit “wooden” (since, for example, English tends to do things a bit different from ancient Greek in terms of word order and general phrasing), while the latter can lead to very misleading and straight up wrong translations if those translating somehow misunderstand the meaning of the text they are translating (since this approach sort of inherently involves a degree of interpretation “at translation time”, so to speak). Both types of translations have their pitfalls, in other words, so the best approach is typically to not limit oneself to just one translation or type of translation, but to compare widely between many options. Nowadays, computers make this very easy to do, so I highly recommend doing so.

Suggestions on Specific Procedures:

  • A little bit every day (or at least very consistently): spiritual momentum is very important. Slow and steady wins the race.
  • Try to set a specific time and place: habit formation largely operates on the idea of consistency.
  • Read several sections at once: this helps break up monotony. It makes sense to prioritize the New Testament somewhat more highly, and to always be reading something from it in any given time. I think the same is generally true of the Psalms.
  • Read for meaning and understanding: quality over quantity. In general, the goal is understanding, not memorization. For the truth to “be real” for us, we need to ensure we give it the focus and time it needs to penetrate deep into our hearts and minds.

The main takeaway point: how you do it is not as important as that you do it. For spiritual safety and spiritual growth, there is no substitute for reading the Word of God.

Follow-on topics

There are many different directions we could take things here.

One initial thing that jumps out at me is the question of if there are “right” and “wrong” ways (or maybe “better” and “worse” ways) to do one’s Bible reading. Some people like doing their Bible reading early in the morning; some late at night. Some truly do every day; some do every couple days when they can dedicate a whole afternoon to it without distractions (e.g.). Some like harnessing the new abilities that computers give us to speed up looking up verse references; some like keeping technology out of it more in order to better avoid distraction.

To re-emphasize what I consider to be the core point: while there are certainly some practical advantages and disadvantages to weigh with different approaches (and I think these are definitely worth considering), how we do it is less important overall than that we do it. I think it very easy to let the perfect become the enemy of the good here, and I think that is generally more dangerous than any potential compromise from failing to use a hypothetically slightly superior approach.

With that said, here are some considerations I think are worth talking about:

  • Audio Bibles vs. reading text
    • Ease in staying focused between the two mediums
    • Text makes it easier to compare passages/verses, relative to audio
    • But audio Bibles can be used when you are driving, when you are doing dishes, etc.
    • Some parts of the Bible better lend themselves to audio (e.g., narrative passages, and the Psalms) since they are either shorter (so have less overall risk of losing some long train of logic if you have to pay attention to traffic for a bit, or whatever), or are less complicated overall = are also just inherently not as vulnerable to getting lost if you have these sorts of brief periods of inattention.
    • The idea of making “playlists” of specific types of verses (rather than only ever using audio Bibles to listen to contiguous chunks). For example, you can make a playlist containing a bunch of comforting verses about God’s care for us to listen to when you get stressed out.
    • Many Bible study apps let you listen to an audio Bible while reading along in the text at the same time. I like this a lot, personally.
    • In my opinion, you don’t have to make an exclusive choice here, nor should you. You can use audio Bibles when reading isn’t otherwise practical, for example, and then read text Bibles the rest of the time.<!– — –>
  • Computers vs. paper Bibles
    • Speed in looking up Bible verse references
    • Searchability of digital copies
    • Using search engines (and AI chatbots too, nowadays) to do reverse lookups on Bible passages = you give the search engine/AI chatbot a paraphrase, and it gives you the passage reference. This is very useful for making sure you support messages you write with good scripture references.
    • Cross-linked original language lexicons and concordances. For example, see the free online tool called the STEP Bible App.
    • It is easier to get distracted using a computer/phone relative to a paper Bible. Restricting internet access can help a good bit though, if that is possible.<!– — –>
  • Comparing Bible translations when some verse seems “surprising”
    • The website BibleHub is very good for this. For example, you can compare all the different translations for the verse John 3:16 here.<!– — –>
  • Formal Bible reading plans
    • I made a spreadsheet system to track my progress, without being particularly wedded to a specific daily schedule (such that you get “out of sync” if you miss a day here or there). Personally, I like this still-organized-yet-less-rigid approach best. On the other hand, it makes it easier to end up missing days in practice, relative to a system that more formally maps reading chunks to specific dates.<!– — –>
  • Study Bibles/Bible handbooks, and things like that
    • Can be very helpful for getting an initial overview of things, without taking too much time to go through, or being overly interpretive in and of themselves. So I can recommend these things a lot. However, I am in general less a fan of commentaries proper, since they tend to be much more long-winded and interpretive overall.

We might very easily go on. I find this sort of “tool and process/workflow analysis” fascinating, and very much worthy of examination. In general, I think being organized is a good thing, as is befitting of this very important responsibility we have as soldiers upon the spiritual battlefield. But at the same time, we never want to make it so onerous that we forget the joy of taking in God’s Holy Truth.

Further discussion

Review Questions

Coming soon!
TOC