I joke that reading is my love language. But until recently, with my four kids scattered to marriage, adulting, and college, leaving only the youngest at home, I was rarely able to find pockets of time that gave me a quality experience with my escape du’ jour. That’s why it was great fun to work (part-time) as a fiction reviewer for Publishers Weekly. When my editor assigned a book, Mommy was under orders (“It’s my job!”) to ensconce myself in a comfy chair with what was usually a good read.
When I was able to finish the book in one or two sittings, my reviews were more accurate and insightful. I recalled plot lines more easily, and characters remained vibrant and memorable. The story made more sense.
Reading the Bible like the narrative it is will produce similar results.
Scripture Is a Story
Stories capture our imagination when we’ve had time to immerse ourselves in the characters, setting, and plot. The Bible, though 66 separate pieces of literature, actually tells one epic story. So it makes sense to read it all if we want to understand the meta narrative (grand plot). Snippets, those verses and paragraphs we post on Instagram, mangle our sense of context and presence. Reading larger sections of Scripture at a time helps us observe God’s progressive design for the world.
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
The wisdom of Shyamala Gopalan Harris, though directed at her daughter Vice-President Kamala Harris, applies to the way we read our Bibles, too. Just as we did not become who we are in a vacuum—our times, settings, relationships, health, talents, everything in our worlds affect who we are—so the people we meet in the Bible were products of their times, locations, and experiences. Understanding their vastly different contexts is critical to correctly identifying and applying larger biblical principles to our own lives.
Understanding the Old Testament correctly means we must interpret it through the New Testament, says Dr. Carol Kaminski, on a recent Alabaster Jar podcast episode.
We need to know where we are in the story. We are not living in Deuteronomy; we’re under the new covenant, living in light of the cross. If we don’t understand the Old Testament storyline, we’re going to be selective with Bible verses. We take the narrative of the great American dream and we christianize it with Bible verses.
As Dr. Kaminski and Shyamala Gopalan Harris illustrate, context is king. And to know context, we must read larger swaths of Scripture at a time.
The 40-Day Challenge
I once took on a challenge to read through the New Testament in forty(ish) days and found remarkable similarities to my ideal reviewing scenario. That timeline requires reading chunks of Scripture—sometimes eight to twelve chapters—in one sitting, pretty ambitious for someone who usually takes several months on a study of one Bible book. The Gospels, though repetitious, weren’t too difficult. Acts moved more quickly—it was fascinating to follow characters continually through so much action and drama. It also allowed me to see the larger plot of how the church grew numerically and spread geographically.
And then I came to Paul’s letters, many of which I would read completely in one sitting. How often do we really do that? With all the quotable quotes and Instagramable imagery, we so easily forget that these were correspondence from a leader to his friends, from a pastor to his congregants. Beyond the important doctrine, these letters also reveal relationships, disappointments, and dreams.
Your Turn
Consider a short-term project to help you ingest Scripture contextually. Here are two ideas:
Choose a letter that Paul wrote and read it from start to finish in one sitting. You’ll discover an amazing display of emotion between Paul and his readers. For instance, he closes Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, and others with personal greetings and praises of his coworkers and friends—by name. He often lists their accomplishments in spreading the gospel as partners alongside himself or as protégés left to carry on the work.
He grieved eloquently over the Galatians’ willingness to stray from the true gospel (Galatians 1). He admonished the Corinthians over their petty divisions (1 Corinthians 3) and double-mindedness (1 Corinthians 5), while extolling their shared calling as ambassadors tasked with reconciling people to God and each other (2 Corinthians 5). He called out specific people sinning publicly (Philippians 4:2). He clearly loved the people in the churches he founded: “We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
By reading his letters as correspondence, we find context for individual verses that deepen our understanding of his original meaning. This leads to more accurate interpretation and then application in our own lives.
Want to discover the big story of God’s redemptive plan? Read through the whole Bible using this 90-day challenge with Mary DeMuth. She guides you through a schedule of reading, offering encouragement and guidance as you work through each section. Enlist a friend or two to read along with you.
Every book in the Bible has a unique story to tell, and we are richer for pulling up a comfy chair and burying our noses into one at a time.
Kelley,
What a great post. Even though I do go deeper and study one verse at a time, I check context. Also I’ve read through the Bible a number of times. Recently I led my group through reading it chronologically. That was very enlightening.
Thx for link to Mary’s study. Might be a great fit for the fall for us. I’ll check it out.