(2 minute 49 second read)
What does it mean to study the Bible?
No doubt as a Christian you’ve heard how important it is to read your Bible, that’s almost a given.
And it’s probably the biggest piece of advice I would give to any Christian out there.
Although, sometimes, I even fail to take my own advice regularly.
But after spending a majority of my life as a Christian, in some great seasons of spiritual closeness with God, and other seasons where I felt far from Him, I’ve learned something rather important that I’d like to share with you.
Reading the Bible and studying it are not the same thing.
Believe it or not, reading the Bible is not where our engagement with it ends, it’s where it begins.
Most often times reading is a casual activity. Either for entertainment, or leisure, and the motivation is personal enjoyment, not really a serious undertaking to understand the content.
Studying the Bible on the other hand, requires effort.
Studying the Bible requires asking questions, thinking about the context, coming to conclusions, thinking of cross-references, and seeking out more information.
I saw this illustration once:
“Almost anyone can make a cup of coffee, but they’re not baristas. We know instinctively that both perform the same basic task, but what distinguishes the barista is a lot of time, effort, research, and experience in learned technique. It’s the same with Bible study. Let’s say you and your friend were from the moon and didn’t know what coffee was. You’re only mildly interested in the topic, so you decide to look it up in a dictionary. You read that coffee is “a popular beverage made from the roasted and pulverized seeds of a coffee plant.” Good enough. You learned something. But your friend wants to know more—a lot more. How is coffee made? What’s the process? Is there more than one process? If so, why would there be different processes? Is there more than one kind of coffee bean? Where are the beans grown? Does that make any difference in color, aroma, or flavor? Is climate a consideration? How is coffee different than tea? If it’s a popular beverage, how much is consumed? Does consumption vary by country? State? Gender? Age?”
The point is that there’s more to scripture than a blank, overview reading of it.
In fact, even a slight understanding, for example, of who a book of the Bible was written to (the audience), can dramatically change your understanding of it.
I’m not saying that one is inherently worse than the other (although, I kind of am…), but I just lean towards the side of study because for me, that is where I’ve felt God reveal the most to me about Himself.
There’s something about reading, having questions, and seeking answers for those questions that makes you appreciate God’s workmanship when he inspired the Biblical writers to put this collection of texts together.
There’s nothing wrong with sitting down and reading God’s word for an amount of time, but don’t get it confused for studying!
This ultimately leads me to my second point, in that Bible study is a discipline, not a ritualistic event.
I’m of the mind that it shouldn’t just be a "box to be checked off.”
It’s hard to get into the mindset of truly studying the Bible, and it’s even harder to keep it going.
We often hear of setting routines, or doing a daily devotionals, or reading our 1 chapter for the day as the means to growing our knowledge of scripture, but often times it ends at that point: A box to be checked for the day.
(If routines are helpful for you, awesome! Do them. I’m highlighting that you don’t need to have a “routine” in order to be devoted, and the opposite, that just because you checked the box off doesn’t mean you are devoted.)
Since Bible study, by definition, is more than Bible reading, it requires work.
Some days there just isn’t time or mental capacity for the kind of effort that true study takes place!
(We can all remember a time in school where we just couldn’t get into the mindset of studying!)
I don’t think we should let that bother us.
“Oh no, I missed a day of reading the Bible! I didn’t check the box!”
Rather than fretting over a missed checked box, maybe think of what you’ve studied before; a previous passage, or theme, or chapter…
On occasions it’s better to think on what you’ve already read, than reading something new.
I’ve found that the days where I didn’t read my Bible can be just as fruitful as the days I do because I spent time thinking about a certain passage.
The point is this: It’s more productive for your spiritual growth to develop some sort of clarity on a previous text than just opening the Bible and reading a new chapter for the sake of maintaining a daily ritual.
Bible study is about developing your mind in the content of scripture, the ultimate source for learning & growing closer to God - not tallying a scoreboard.
You will be surprised on how God can reveal certain things to you if you just take a second, pause, and reflect on what you’ve read previously and dwell on it.
All in all, It’d be beneficial to read the Bible and not study it over not reading at all. However, in my experience, when I decided to put in a little more effort when I read scripture, God seemed to show me things I wouldn’t have found had I just read it just to say I read it.
Interesting how that works 🙂
God bless,
-Nils
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