What to Know Before Reading the Bible

By Chuck Fenwick

If you’ve tried to read the Bible before but struggled, you are not alone. 

The Bible is filled with a lot of information. Some of it can seem important, and some of it honestly seems pretty far fetched. 

So there are a few things that I think you should know before the next time you dive into scripture. 

And this will be useful information whether or not you’ve read the Bible before. 

Let’s get into it!

Recognize the Audience

The Bible was not written for you. While certain books of the Bible and verses can be important to you, the Bible was intended for an entirely different audience. And that audience lived many years ago. 

The Bible was inspired by God and written by people for other people at a different time period thousands of years ago. It’s composed of manuscripts, documentations, letters, to various people and entire groups of people. 

The Old Testament, or the first half, was written before Jesus was born. And Jesus is the son of God. The New Testament was written after Jesus was born. It starts out with four different books telling different aspects of Jesus’ life. Then, it’s a series of letters from different authors sharing how followers of Jesus should live. 

So if you read parts of the Bible and it feels like it doesn’t directly apply to you, that is why. And if you get stuck in the details of the scriptures, it’s okay to move past them. Not every part of the Bible will apply to the society and cultures we live in today.

The Content is Valuable to You

Okay, so now we know the Bible was written to specific people in a different period of time. However, just because you aren’t the intended audience doesn’t mean it isn’t worth reading today. 

There’s a lot of valuable information in there! There are guidelines for how followers of God should live their life. 

Hear me out: We do not have to take everything in the Bible literally. And not everything is an instruction manual on how we should live today. 

But, it’s still helpful and important! Jesus teaches us how to pray and imitate Him to help others find their way to God, too. There is so much we can learn from reading through the Bible!

Don’t give up! 

There are a lot of different names, places, and words that are hard to pronounce. It’s okay if you don’t know how to say them! Don’t let this stop you from reading through. 

It’s totally fine to skip over these places for now and come back at a later time. 
Also, I have a pro tip for you. If I ever am unsure of how to pronounce something while I’m reading, I use the Bible app. You can have it read the Bible outloud to you like an audiobook! It’s super helpful and keeps me focused on the content instead of struggling through.

Make It a Habit

The Bible is huge – and so, so long. It’s literally many books all linked together like a small library. 

Most people give up reading scripture before they even try. And I totally get it! It’s a daunting task. 

But I promise it’s worth it. If you want to incorporate reading scripture in your daily routine, make it a habit! Commit to just 5 minutes of reading a day for 3 weeks. Just 21 days. 

That’s only 105 minutes over the course of 3 weeks. Less than 2 hours! You can do this!

Need some help? 

If you’re struggling to understand something in scripture, or have other Bible related questions, I am happy to help. Send me a text! Reading the Bible is tricky and I want us to be able to do this together.