How am I supposed to read the Bible?

The bible has so much knowledge and wisdom it is hard to know where to start. Do you start at Genesis and work your way through or should you read the new testament from the Gospel? Just like everything else, the scriptures give us the answers. They tell us exactly how to read the bible in order to understand it. All Praises to the Most High! He knew we would have these questions and he supplied answers.

3 Steps to Reading the Bible to Gain Understanding

Let’s break it down into steps.

I am assuming that you desire to read the Word of God because you want to know more about him and you revere him. If that is the case then you have accomplished the first step.

1. Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

The word fear in this verse means reverence or piety. It is not fear as being scared of something.

Before we even attempt to start to read the Bible or any biblical text we should pray for wisdom. Reverencing the Most High God puts us in a place of humility and dependence on God to give us the true understanding in the scriptures. 

Why do we pray for wisdom first before going into the bible?

2. James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

We have to ask God for wisdom in order to receive wisdom. 

Here is why we ask for Wisdom:

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

“The principle thing” means absolute chief thing. Therefore, if we don’t have wisdom we will not get the true meaning and understanding that God intended in the scriptures. Without wisdom we will lean to our own understanding which will cause us to err in the scriptures.

3. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Once we get the understanding through the Wisdom that HE gave us we MUST give him the praise and honour, because it was not our own doing but HIS (Psalm 119:27,33-38).

So now we have done 3 things that prepare us for reading the scriptures:

1. We come humbly with a fear or reverence to the Most High God.

2. We pray to God to give us Wisdom as we seek to know him.

3. We now go into the scriptures with the understanding that God has given us through Wisdom so that our direction is clear.

   
   

Now that we are spiritually set up to obtain the jewels that are in the Holy scriptures, we see in Proverbs 4:7 it speaks about getting understanding. 

How do I get understanding?

Very good question. Guess what…The Bible answers that question. 

Psalm 119:104-105 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

I’m sure the next question is “what are precepts and why have I never heard of them”. Precepts are simply the commandments or word of God. Recall that the word says lean not to our own understanding in Proverbs 3:5. Unfortunately, most people that teach the word use their own understanding and philosophy to either push an agenda, uplift themselves in some way, or teach how they were taught through some seminary school. Psalm 119:104 shows that precepts allow us to see false doctrine. Colossians 2:8 issues a strong warning with respect to listening to philosophy concerning the Word of God. 

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

How do I use precepts?

We see why precepts are important and the simplicity of what they are but how do we use them? 

Isaiah 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Notice how I have been giving a little scripture here and a little scripture there to answer the questions in this post? The scriptures are doing the talking and explaining of other scriptures. This is how precepts work. We in our finite, fleshly or carnal minds are incapable of being able to explain what God means in our own words. Plus, why would we when he gave us the explanation?

The bible tells us to prove all things. Prayerfully through this post and these examples you can see how precepts will allow you to get the understanding you need to apply the Word of God to your life.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Example of precepts

Let’s put it into practice. Here is an example of how to use precepts to gain understanding.

In Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

We see the potential to be deceived by philosophy which is of men. Here are a few other scriptures that confirm this to be true. I purposely took these scriptures from different books of the bible so that you can see how the spirit always agrees so that we can know the spirit by the spirit.

1 Peter 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Christ said this: 

Matthew 15:8-9 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

James 3:13-15 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Enmity in this verse means-Hositility or reason for opposition

What if I don’t know enough scripture to be able to put together precepts?

As you become more engaged with reading the word, the Holy Spirit will start to bring scriptures to your memory. 

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

We can also use other tools to help us understand the scriptures

Other tools

1. Center column or precepts noted in your personal bible

Most King James Version Bibles have precepts which are noted by a superscript number or letter over a word in a verse that references another verse within the bible. Here is an example that you might see in your bible:

Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but ^aevery man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

^aPsalm 62:9

Now when you go to Psalm 62:9 it reads as the following:

Psalm 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

2. Concordance

The King James Version Bible was written in Hebrew (Old testament) and Greek (New testament) and translated to English. Some of the words used in those languages differ greatly in their meaning from what we have come to know. You noticed that throughout this post I defined some words to further clarify. I personally use the blue letter bible Strongs concordance tool when defining words. This is EXTREMELY important in getting understanding. One word can change the entire meaning of a verse.

3. Bible dictionary

Sometimes further definition is required to gain the maximum understanding. I personally use the Zondervan Bible Dictionary to define some words. These dictionaries sometimes give more context relative to the time period as well as other places the word was used, also helping you with finding precepts.

4. Teachers skilled at precepts

Lastly, get with a church like GOCC that teaches the word with teachers that use precepts. If a pastor is reading one or two verses and spending 45 minutes expounded in his own words for the remainder of the lesson, that is a good indication that you are being taught philosophy and are in jeopardy of being deceived.

In Conclusion

I’m in no way against reading full chapters of books in the bible. I believe it provides proper context and builds on the understanding. However, within those large blocks of scripture you will need to use precepts, along with the other tools that I mentioned, to understand the true spirit of the word. The bible is full of mysteries and those that seek Him diligently will be rewarded!

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.