How To Read The Bible | How Not To Read The Bible
Read This
If we want to know what the Bible means, we have to understand what is meant.
2 Timothy 3:15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Remember This
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Parent Cue
Morning Time
The Bible was never meant to be read alone. Help your kids pick a friend or family member to text a Bible verse that you think will help them today.
Bed Time
At bed time, ask your kid if they’ve ever experienced who was really smart, but also always bragged about their grades. Sometimes when people read the Bible, they do the same thing. They care more about knowing the most about the Bible, but don’t ever think about how the Bible should change us. Ask your kid, “What’s one way you’d like to see God change you as we read the Bible?”
Meal Time
Read Luke 2:46. One of the ways that Jesus and early Christians read the bible was by doing it with other people and asking lots of questions. As a family, come up with a list of 10 questions about God that you have and would love to find out?
Share your list with your small group leader during the week.
Drive Time
As you’re driving, ask your kids to describe the world. What do the see in the world? What’s it like? Then recite to them, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Ask them if they think the word “world” here refers to what they described or more specifically to people. How do they know?
Sometimes when we read the Bible, we need to read the rest of the verse (or even chapter) to know what it is trying to teach us.
From the Small Catechism
“Because Scripture is given in human language, to read and rightly understand what it says, we must humbly use human reason in such maters as context, grammar, and logic.
Because the Bible is God’s Word, and unlike all other books, is inspired and inerrant, it is wrong to use human reason to…deny its truthfulness.” – Explanation of the Small Catechism, p. 48
[Over the course of this series read the questions and answers in the Introduction to the Explanation section of Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation]