reading the Bible from cover to cover
For as long as I can remember, I have always had a Bible. When I was younger, I went to kids camps, Sunday school and mid-week groups. Without fail, we were always taught from God’s Word.
As I got older, I became interested in more than just the surface level. It was at that point in my life that I was truly introduced to other kinds of Bible teaching, beliefs and ideas.
When I was in middle school, I found myself scrolling through some Christian websites. What I read next startled me.
“I don’t think it’s very important to read the entire Bible. We can get exactly what God wants us to from the parts that we’re interested in.”
I reread the words in disbelief. “Is this person trying to tell us that there’s only certain parts of the Bible that are important… only certain parts that are worth reading?”
Friend, have you ever heard that before? Have you ever seen someone treat the Bible that way — as a book only partially significant? Have you ever wondered it yourself?
I would be lying if I said I’ve never wondered that — if it’s really important to read the entire Bible. I’ve been guilty of only hanging out in the gospels or Paul’s epistles during my Bible time because it’s easy to apply, uplifting and simple to understand (for the most part).
If you’ve ever had those questions cross your mind, here’s your permission slip to release that guilt. And here’s a new permission slip to step into the fullness that Christ has for you. I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely important, necessary and life changing to read the entire Bible. That we as true believers cannot approach the Bible as anything but 100% important, beautiful, authoritative and perfect.
But don’t take my word for it alone — let’s look at a few reasons (from the Bible itself, the ultimate authority itself) why every believer should read and honor the entire Bible.
3 Reasons Why We Should Read the Entire Bible
There is a life changing story line from Genesis to Revelation that we need to know / live.
How crazy cool is that? Did you know that God set out this huge, overarching story of redemption? Did you know that He planned and ordained it before time, inaugurated it in Genesis and tells us how it will end in victory in Revelation?!
Consider this: Most of us hang out in the New Testament most of the time, right? We read the gospels and Paul’s epistles. We know and love the story and truths from Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. But here’s the cool truth: The Old Testament holds major pieces to God’s overarching story. Within the Old Testament books are hints and clues to Jesus. Literally everything points back to Jesus.
Like Romans 11:36 reminds us, literally everything is from God, to God and through God. Yes, admittedly, the Old Testament can be confusing and “boring” at times. But God gives us all the tools we need, and the Spirit, to help us understand.
Watch as you read the entire Bible, book by book. Watch as God opens your willing eyes to see everything fall into the timeline of history, equip you in the now and give you hope for eternity.
It will keep you in a Bible-reading habit.
On a less “spiritual” level, reading the entire Bible and intentionally deciding to see the WHOLE Bible as important will help your reading become more of a habit. And although we never want our time in the Word with our Savior to become a mere habit or loveless gesture, habits are helpful and fruitful.
If you commit to reading Genesis, chapter one to the end, and then choose another book, you have given yourself direction. You’ve given yourself purpose instead of aimlessly jumping from one verse of the Bible to the next book of the Bible. Not only is jumping around in the Bible confusing and dishonoring the Bible’s precious context, it also brings a lot of unnecessary confusion and disorder to reading.
Let God show you how sufficient and capable every single word and page is. And then watch Him grow an increasingly delight in Him and His Word. All of it.
It will help you understand, interpret and apply God’s Word better.
It wasn’t until I was about eighteen that I finally read the entire Bible. Until then, I had held myself back from enjoying God’s Word in its entirety. I had held myself back from enjoying the fullness of GOD Himself, since He is the Word (John 1).
The last reason that I will leave you with is this: Reading the entire Bible and seeing it as wholly important helps us understand and interpret God’s Word better. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been confused by the Bible! Raise your hand if you’ve ever admitted to a friend, or even God Himself, that you don’t know how to understand and live the Bible.
The better we know the Bible’s storyline and God, the main character and Savior, the more aware we will be of the context of each passage. When people say, “Context is key”, I really think they’re onto something. Context, meaning the circumstances, setting and idea surrounding something, goes hand and hand with Bible reading. It goes hand in hand with reading and living it the way God designed.
The more fully we read the Bible, the grand, wholistic story it is, the more we will be able to understand who God is, what He has done, what He will do, what we’re called to do and more. We’ll be armored up with the proper interpretation of the Word so we can truly glorify God, teach others His truth and keep our minds from believing lies.
Passages for Further Study:
2 Timothy 3
Psalm 119
2 Peter 1:16-21
Resources / Reading Plans
To close, I wanted to quickly share a few resources / reading plans that you may find useful, sis. If you desire to read the entire Bible and have the Spirit open your eyes to the beauty within each page, consider committing to these tools. Know that God gives you the discipline to commit, heart to understand and grace to live it out for His glory.