What a Pastor Means When He Says, “You Should Be Reading Your Bible.”

I can remember exactly where it sat in my childhood home. The family Bible had a permanent place in the dining room atop our vintage 70’s record player—you know, the kind that looked like a permanent piece of furniture. Everything about it said this book was important. Its white leather cover was embossed with Holy Bible in gold filigree. It was the size of a briefcase and sat erect and on display like it came straight from the Smithsonian. Everything about it screamed: important!

That Bible was my first encounter with the book I would spend my life trying to understand. Its central place in our home mirrored the central role it would play in my faith. Since the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press, reading Scripture has been a key practice for anyone wanting to take their faith seriously. Yet despite its importance, it often becomes a source of frustration. We start reading, hit something confusing, lose interest, and give up. Then, when a pastor says how “life-giving” Scripture is, we wonder if something’s wrong with us.

What pastors often fail to mention is that reading Scripture is hard. It’s confusing. It has a complex set of barriers that take time and tools to overcome. Many of us spend years with scholarly help trying to understand it—and even then, we’re still learning. But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. Here’s what we pastors get right:

• Scripture is central to the life of the church.
• Regularly encountering Scripture is vital for understanding, sustaining, and growing in our faith.
• Despite its complexity, the Holy Spirit can use it to speak to you—starting day one.

The goal here isn’t to discourage you but to reframe your expectations. We should saturate our lives with Scripture, letting the Spirit lead, guide, convict, and encourage us. But what that looks like may differ from person to person.

Before we explore the four categories of reading Scripture, keep in mind:

• The goal is to hear the Spirit’s voice. That can happen in every category.
• Not all categories are necessary for every disciple to master. This isn’t a hierarchy. Maturity is measured by obedience, not knowledge—though knowledge matters.
• Growth is always the goal. Even if you never teach, you should challenge yourself to grow in understanding. I move through these categories depending on life’s demands and what time I have. Each has a role to play.

1. Encounter Scripture

Focus: Saturation. This category emphasizes the value of consistently placing Scripture before our eyes. It helps new believers get familiar with Scripture, and gives seasoned believers space for memorization and meditation. It doesn’t take much time and often comes with help in the form of an accompanying devotion or sermon to help you understand what you’re reading. But it has limits—you won’t get the broader story or deeper context without supplemental tools.

Reading Commitment:

• 1–3 verses at a time (5–30 minutes a day)

Reading Style:

• Devotional books
• Scripture memorization
• Verse of the day
• Church readings
• Sermons or podcasts
• Audio Bibles

Key Question:

• What does God have to say to me today through these verses?

2. Read Scripture

Focus: Familiarity. This style helps you understand Scripture’s layout, stories, and repeated themes. It’s one of the most enjoyable ways to read, but it’s harder to catch smaller details. You may leave with more questions than answers—and that’s okay.

Reading Commitment:

• 1–3 chapters at a time (15–60 minutes a day)

Reading Style:

• Bible reading plans
• SOAP journaling
• Book intros
• BibleProject overviews
• Study Bible notes
• NT & OT Introductions
• Topical Bible studies and podcasts
• The Bible Recap Podcast

Key Questions:

• What’s the moral of the story I am reading?
• What does this reveal about God’s character?
• What does it reveal about us?

3. Study Scripture

Focus: Complexity. This is where we start wrestling with the harder questions—what a passage means, what it says about a topic, or why something bothers us. It takes time, deeper tools, and often community to navigate this well. Study may focus on both large and small portions of Scripture, often requiring multiple hours or even months of work on a single passage.

Reading Commitment:

• In-depth study over many days/weeks (45–60 minutes a day or more)

Reading Style:

• Pick a passage that intrigues or bothers you
• Use Bible study tools and methods

Tools:

• Study Bibles
• Bible dictionaries
• Concordances
• Commentaries
• Logos Bible Software
• How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee
• Elements of Biblical Exegesis by Michael Gorman
• BibleProject resources

Key Questions:

• What is the author trying to communicate?
• What challenges come with interpreting this passage?
• Is it for the original audiences context or for disciples of all time?
• What might God be saying to me/us through the author?

4. Teach Scripture

Focus: Communication. This isn’t just about preaching—it’s any moment where we pass along a biblical truth. It could be in a small group, a devotional, or a conversation at work. You don’t need to be a scholar, but you do need to engage Scripture carefully and humbly. Teaching Scripture means understanding the passage, your audience, and how the two intersect. It’s not sharing a testimony—it’s communicating biblical truths.

Reading Commitment:

• Variable, depending on the teaching context

Reading Style:

• Reading to find a truth to share with others.
• Searching the entirety of Scripture for added support and understanding of the truth you are conveying.

Tools:

• Courses on teaching Scripture
• How to prepare a message
• How to write a devotional

Key Questions:

• Do I understand what the author is trying to communicate?
• Where do the author’s context and my audience’s context intersect?
• Am I speaking in a way my audience understands?

A few thoughts as we wrap up:

• When someone says they want to “understand the Bible better,” they often mean reading as per categories 3 and 4. But for everyday faithfulness, categories 1 and 2 are the most vital.
• You can’t do 3 and 4 without doing 1 and 2. Study can be devotional—but study without devotion turns you into a fact dispenser. And that’s not the point.
• Understanding Scripture takes time and repeated reading. It’s an evolving practice. No one ever “arrives.” We study, and we teach, and we do it humbly—because the more we learn, the more we realize how much we still don’t know.