Don’t Read the Bible in a Year
Despite feeling that you probably should.
There are normally two applications from most evangelical sermons:
Read the Bible.
Pray.
It’s tiresome and predictable.
And yet…
We don’t read the Bible. And we don’t pray. Even though we know we should. As James tells us:
“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3)
In short. According to James, you are the worst.
Correct. We are. We resent the application of each sermon being the same. We know it’s true. And we ignore that message as often as it is preached.
Until the dam bursts.
We can’t take the guilt any longer. We decide that we are actually going to read the Bible. All of it. In a year.
Okay?! Happy now?!
Bad Reasons for Reading the Bible in a Year
Clearly, guilt is not a good reason for wanting to read the whole Bible in a year. And this is not why many people choose to do that.
But what is a good reason? I’ll let you supply your own here. I can wait. They’re fairly obvious. And in some ways, I would agree with each of them.
However, the desire to read the Bible in a year might be a bad idea for several reasons. I will list them without nuance. Because nuance is boring.
The Bible doesn’t ask us to do this
There are lots of great Bible verses about the importance of reading the Bible. I can’t think of any that tell us to read all of it in a calendar year. It’s wise to read it at the beginning of the day. And again at the end. And if you did that for twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the evening, you would actually read the whole Bible in a year fairly comfortably.
But is this just about ‘getting the text read’? This is how I read Far From the Madding Crowd for my GCSE English. I got through it. Hardy’s wistful bucolic imagery was entirely wasted on me as I just wanted to get it read. We don’t want to read the Bible like it’s a set text, do we?
Would you read another book this way?
Tolstoy is a great author. I hear War and Peace is brilliant. As is Anna Karenina. Would you like to read the complete works of Tolstoy in a year? What about Dickens? Or Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets? You could read them in a year. But is that how you would get the most out of them? Don’t you need time to think and reflect on them? To read something else alongside? Why would you read the complete words of God, the Bible, the best of all books, in a similar tick-box fashion?
You Don’t Just Read the Bible
The Bible tells us to read it, savour it, meditate on it and memorise it. Are you really going to do that in the year as well? All of the above takes time. You can’t savour something quickly. If you commit to reading the Bible in a year, you’re probably parking the idea of savouring, let alone meditating and memorising. I don’t think that’s a good idea for a whole year.
By the Way, the Bible Reads You
Let’s go back to James, who writes:
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” (James 1:22-24)
Reading scripture should cause us to reflect to the point where we change our behaviour. We need to look in the mirror and study ourselves so we can make relevant changes. Reading the Bible in a year feels like running around in a hall of mirrors. There’s no time to stand, stare, take stock and take action.
Reading the Bible will probably become a chore
Taken the correct dosage of vitamins and supplements? Yep.
Brushed your teeth for the requisite time period? Yep.
Read the daily prescribed passages of scripture? Yep.
Godly routines and habits are good (sorry, couldn’t resist some nuance), and we want to obey God whether we feel like it or not (there I go again).
But is this how you want to read the Gospel of John, or the Song of Solomon? Against the clock, as part of a checklist?
Is this just about being able to say you’ve read the Bible in a year?
Maybe there’s a bit of that. Only you know the answer to that one. Be honest.
The Bible isn’t medicine that you need to take. It’s balm for your soul.
The Bible is not a set text that you have to have run your eyes over – because there’s going to be a test. It’s wisdom for life.
The Bible is not fuel for your body so you can get your work done. It’s the bread of life.
The Bible is not a classic work of literature that you have to tick off a list, so you can brag to your friends that you’ve read it. It’s a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths.
Are you going to read the Bible in a year?
If you’ve read to the end and your good reasons easily outweigh my bad ones, and you still feel you want to read the Bible in a year, go for it. It’ll probably do you the power of good.
Next time, I might suggest ways you could do that that aren’t simply grinding through it.
The best family film you probably haven’t seen
The Kid Who Would Be King, directed by Joe Cornish, is great fun and worth a look. I chatted to Nate about it on the Popcorn Parenting podcast that you can find on the Reformed Mythologist YouTube channel. Or here: