Six Ways to Make the Bible Make Sense

There’s no point in hinting around. Studying the Bible isn’t optional, but most Christians find it taxing to establish a routine. Consequently, they either restrict their time in God’s Word to some little promise book, or they just put it off altogether. Naturally, the promise book is good, but it no more substitutes for serious reading than a donut and coffee take the place of a balanced meal. How can the Holy Spirit guide us into “all truth” if we just consider truth a snack food?

We’re a generation that has grown up on websites, magazines, tv, movies and 12-minute YouTube shows, so we find it difficult to read more than a chapter or two in a sitting … or a week … or a month. Frankly, a lot of us just won’t read anything unless it’s published twelve times a year in color or easy to find on Google. But don’t be depressed. There are understandable reasons why you don’t read your Bible like you should. If you’re the typical Christian:

• You read the Scriptures for “spiritual guidance” rather than practical instruction.
• No matter how much you read, you just don’t understand a lot of it.
• You have no idea how much Bible knowledge is “enough,” so you’re defeated right out of the gate.

The important thing is to get into Scripture as a manual for living, not just to find “proof-texts” for defending your faith. So, to that end here are six rules—I don’t really like the word “rules,” but we’ll use it—that will help you to see the Scriptures as the practical guide it was meant to be.

Rule Number One: Read the Bible like today’s news

The Bible is intended to give you practical information that concerns the real world. Quit looking to achieve some inner glow; this is news you can use! For example, the Fifth Commandment says to “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). You can meditate all day long on that verse, searching for warm fuzzies of enlightenment and inspiration. But it is actually an important, practical commandment, with a wonderful promise attached for those who obey it, and a cold, hard warning implied for those who don’t. Read it again. It simply shows that a long and blessed life begins with honoring those who gave you life. Enjoying the future begins with respect for the past. It could just as easilyhave been phrased, “Do unto your parents as you someday would have your children do unto you.” The flip-side? The man who fails to honor his parents will likely also fail to teach his children to do the same. That’s just misery on a lay-away plan.

Rule Number Two: Read the Bible by the authors’ division points

Forget the chapter and verse partitions the translators later added. These scholars often started or ended passages in odd places. For example, Ephesians 5:22 through 6:9 is a complete section about families, which easily could be considered its own chapter. Read it that way, and you’ll see what I mean. Several newer editions of the Bible have dealt with this problem by grouping verses into naturally flowing paragraphs. Get one.

Rule Number Three: Look for Jesus in every book

Always be open to the big picture—life in Christ—when you read God’s Word. Don’t let yourself get lost in Exodus or numbed by Numbers. They were written to reveal to you His character, and to establish you in His ways. The overarching theme of the Bible is God’s covenantal relationship with man. This means that even those musty old laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy ultimately were written as practical instruction on Christian living. The apostle Paul was confident enough of this fact to claim that a passage about oxen was really a lesson to Christians about proper payment for services rendered.

For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. (1 Corinthians 9:9-10; see also 1 Timothy 5:17-18 regarding Paul’s claim that good pastors deserve bigger salaries.)

Never forget what Paul knew so well: The Old Testament is all about the New Covenant.

Rule Number Four: Don’t “claim” every scripture you read

Don’t individualize every scripture you read. The Bible was written to a people, not a person. So many Christians get tripped up trying to individually appropriate promises that were written to God’s people as a community. For example, Joe Christian sees God’s promise in Deuteronomy 28:13 to make His people “the head, not the tail,” and takes it as God’s will that a promotion is inevitable at work. Then, after he’s been laid off, he’s not only worried about his financial future, but he’s also plagued with accusations that his faith must be defective.

In truth, that Scripture, like so many others, was written as a promise of corporate blessing for corporate obedience to God’s commandments. In other words, when faithfulness becomes a social trend, blessing multiplies. Likewise, when disobedience is the cultural rule of thumb, widespread suffering is sure to follow (often even afflicting the few good people who may live among the wicked majority). Psalm 150 says to praise God with stringed instruments, flute, and trumpet, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to take lessons. It simply means somebody should.

As you study, keep in mind that you’re one member in a whole body. You’ll never understand every word, any more than you can fulfill every prophecy or claim every blessing. Which leads us to our last rule …

Rule Number Five: Don’t try to walk in light you haven’t seen

Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Just be confident in what you do know, and honest when you don’t. Don’t be afraid to say, “I’m stumped,” when you’re stumped. And keep reading.

Remember, only God knows how much knowledge is “enough,” because the answer is always changing as you grow. The “path of the just” is getting brighter and brighter like the rising sun, as the Holy Spirit transforms us day by day. Sure, the world could use a few more good theologians. But a mail clerk who can intelligently comment on the Ten Commandments is as valuable to the cause of Christ as any wise man hunched over a Hebrew manuscript in some light-deprived library.

Rule Number Six: Who you know is more important than what you know

None of the first five rules count if you don’t grasp this one: Who you know is ultimately more important than what you know. Abraham’s rock-solid faith was stated this way: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able…” It wasn’t what Abraham believed but whom he believed.

Ditto Mary and Martha. The last few verses of Luke 10 show Jesus and his disciples arriving unannounced at the home of Mary, Martha and his good friend, Lazarus. Naturally, Martha wanted to be a good hostess, so she got up and started busying herself with serving Jesus (the most fitting use of that term ever). Meanwhile, Mary just sat at his feet listening to him talk.

Martha accused her sister of being lazy, and I have to admit, the first time I read that passage I took Martha’s side. There was work to be done, and Mary just wanted to start a “bless me” club. Of course, I quickly realized that this position put me on the opposite side of Jesus—never a good thing when you’re in professional ministry.

Then it hit me: Martha was so busy serving Jesus that she didn’t have time for him. And neither I.

Bottom line: Don’t be so busy being a student of the word that you forget to enjoy being a child of God.