Here’s What’s Messing Up Your Bible Reading

There are two obstacles that stand in the way of understanding what God has for you in your daily Bible reading. Until you overcome them, your biblical understanding will suffer.

Before I get to these two things, I want to tackle the issue of literacy. If you have trouble reading, which is something I see more often, you will also need to work on simple reading skills. Two things you can do to strengthen your reading skills are reading more and learning new words.

Reading More

If you have trouble reading, the only way to overcome it is to read more. Take time to read and then increase the time. If you have trouble maintaining your focus, read for five minutes at a time. Once you have mastered that, read for ten minutes at a time. You will need to continue to make a habit of reading in order to strengthen your reading skills.

Learning New Words

Instead of guessing when you come across a new word, look it up. As you spend more time reading, you will find words you do not know. Take the time to look them up and discover their meaning. Increasing your vocabulary will help you better understand what you read.

Two Obstacles to Your Bible Reading

One – Bible Reading in Context

The simpler obstacle to understanding the Bible is the essential importance of context. In order to understand any passage of scripture, especially individual verses or phrases, you must understand the context of that passage. When passages are taken out of context, it can be misleading. Often, we see scripture verses taken out of context to prove a point.

There are three levels of context to take into consideration.

Immediate Context

This means the context of the paragraph or chapter. For example, we can look at Jeremiah 29. In this chapter, Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles. They are far from home and the thing they hope for more than anything is to return home. When Jeremiah’s letter tells them to settle in the land they are in and adopt a normal life because they will be there for a long time, they are furious. They long to see their home and hate Jeremiah’s word that they should be content to live in the land of their captivity.

Buried in the letter is this verse:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

Many have taken this verse on as a promise of God to give us the things we hope for but this was not the case when it was written. In fact, what this says is that God designs plans for our welfare, our future and our hope. We would like to be able to set those things ourselves, but it is God that does it.

This also takes us to the point where we must be careful of the version we use. For example, The Message ends this verse with the words: “plans to give you the future you hope for.” In fact, this is not what is promised here. The future the people hoped for was a return to Israel. The future that was promised in this letter was to live and probably die in the land of captivity.

Be careful when you read that you understand the immediate context.

Book Context

The second level of context is the book itself. What kind of book is it? One of the best examples is the book of Proverbs. Proverbs are statement that are generally true. They are God’s wisdom that is dispensed so we can better understand the world around us. However, not every proverb is a promise. For example, one proverb says a soft answer turns away wrath. While that may be generally true, it is not always true.

There are books of poetry, narrative, history, law. There are epistles (letters) that provide clear instruction to the church but because they are letters that deal with specific issues, we must be careful how to understand what is written.

Knowing the type of book you are reading, the context of that book, will help you understand each individual passage of the book.

Bible Context

Each passage has an immediate context and a context defined by the type of book it is. Finally, understanding passages of scripture must be done within the context of the entire Bible. The Bible is the story of God’s reaching down to man. It is a divine story of God’s mercy and grace, of his love and kindness and faithfulness. Every passage of scripture must be understood in the context of God’s story as we find it in the Bible.

Your Bible reading will suffer unless you take context into account as you read.

Two – Bible Reading in Perspective

Perspective is the most difficult obstacle to overcome when understanding the Bible. We all approach God’s word with a fairly unique perspective. Our life experiences and especially our religious traditions strongly influence how we understand the Bible.

Some Christian traditions strongly emphasize grace, some the sovereignty of God, some obedience. Other traditions emphasize practical acts of compassion, or spirituality, or rules, or relationship.

It’s not that any of these things are wrong, it’s that when we are fully immersed in these traditions, it influences how we understand all of scripture. For example, if our tradition strongly focuses on the sovereignty of God, we sometimes have trouble understanding the dynamic of human choice.

What’s Your Perspective?

If we are unwilling to consider every other perspective, we run into trouble. One thing is sure, we will find scriptures that challenge our traditions or doctrine. What do we do in those situations? There are three options to handling these passages.

One – disregard or ignore the passage. This is certainly the easiest thing to do but it is simply not wise to ignore the word of God.

Two – explain it away. If we are trying to line up all of God’s word according to our tradition or doctrine, we often will twist the plain meaning of the passage to fit our comfortable understanding. This is the most common way we deal with these passages. However, we must remember that our traditions and doctrines are man’s word. Scripture is God’s word. It is a dangerous thing to twist the plain word of God to fit our flawed understanding.

Third – explore it and be willing to go deeper. Because God is God and we are not, there will always be things we do not understand. Even in heaven, we will continue to be unable to fully comprehend all that God is and does. He remains God, infinite and awesome; we remain human, finite and humble.

When we encounter those passages that challenge our doctrine and traditions, it is wise to ask what God is teaching us. In fact, all of God’s word is true, even those passages which seem contradictory can co-exist in God’s economy because of his vast knowledge that far surpasses our understanding.

Your Bible reading must take into account your perspective. You will thrive in your understanding of God’s word as you do this.

Today

In your Bible reading today, remind yourself that context and perspective are two important elements to understanding what God has for you. Pray, and ask him to open your mind to his truth and be willing to accept whatever he has for you whether it is comfortable or not.

Get the most out of your experience with the Bible. It is what God wants for you!

I would love to hear your comments. Check out our Facebook page.