How to Read the Bible 101Sample

The Walls: The Bible was written to transform us and not just inform us.

Here we are, the final day of this Plan! Congrats for making it this far—that takes time, commitment, and effort. All of which are vital ingredients in becoming wise readers of the Bible. Let’s review what we’ve covered so far.

Review:

The Bible is a story, written by people and inspired by God, that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus. Reading the Bible is kind of like stepping into the living room of a house to be with Jesus. Like any good house, this has a strong foundation that holds it all up, a sturdy roof that keeps the bad stuff out, and four walls that hold it all together.

The foundation of this house is the truth that Jesus is King. The roof is the idea that context is everything. The three walls we’ve covered so far are: the Bible is God’s Word for us, but it wasn’t originally written to us, the Bible is meant to be read literately and not just literally, and the Bible is meant to be read in passages and not just pieces. All of these ideas work together to help us know Jesus better and become more like Him everytime we open the pages of Scripture.

Today, we are covering the final wall of this house…

The Bible was written to transform us and not just inform us.

When Jesus was asked, “What is the most important commandment in the Bible?” He answered like this:

“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 NLT

In a nutshell, Jesus is saying the most important command is to love God with all that you are, and the second one is just as important, love other people the way you love yourself.

How does this play into today’s big idea? Reading the Bible to gain information can be really helpful, but it’s not the goal. The goal is to know and love God with all that we are, our entire heart, soul, mind and strength. And, to love other people the way we love ourselves.

It’s not just about gaining information. It’s about life transformation.

And nobody in history was a better example of what it looks like to truly and totally love God with every fiber of their being than Jesus. And nobody in history was a better example of what it looks like to perfectly and completely love other people than Jesus.

His entire life was devoted to honoring and glorifying His Father. He never sinned. He was righteous in every way. He never lost sight of the mission His Father had given to Him: to rescue us from sin, repair our relationship with Him, and restore our purpose of partnering with God to make the world new. He did that by sacrificing Himself on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sins, we could experience freedom in our relationship with Him, and we could be adopted into God’s family.

Every step of the way, Jesus showed us what a life devoted to God and committed to loving others could and should look like. And every step of the way, He invites us to follow in His footsteps. To live as His disciples. Because the Bible wasn’t written just to inform us about the things that had happened, but to transform us into the kind of people who love God and love others like Jesus does.

Which brings us all the way back to the beginning. Because the Bible is a story, written by people and inspired by God, that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus. We don’t read the Bible just to learn more facts. We read the Bible to know God and learn how to share His love with others.

Challenge: Keep seeking Jesus, studying the Bible, and serving people. As you do, check out our Bible Nerds videos on YouTube, and start your next Switch Bible Plan.