WHY I DO NOT ADVISE READING THE BIBLE LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK
I do not advise reading the Bible the way you would read a novel, a history text, or even great literature. Scripture is not merely read; it is received. It is not consumed in long, uninterrupted gulps, but taken like daily bread—slowly, reverently, with dependence. The Bible is living and active, and when we approach it as we would any other book, we risk handling a flame as though it were cold ink on a page (Hebrews 4:12).
One of the common mistakes I see is treating the Bible as a linear project to be completed rather than a revelation meant to shape us. This often leads people to spend months—sometimes years—camped almost exclusively in the Old Testament. While all Scripture is inspired and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16), not all Scripture functions the same way in the life of a believer at every stage. The Old Testament prepares the ground; the New Testament reveals the face. To dwell too long in the shadows without regularly returning to the substance can leave the soul burdened, confused, or subtly re-centered on law rather than life.
The Old Testament is Christ-shaped, but Christ-veiled. The New Testament is Christ-revealed. Jesus Himself said that the Scriptures testify of Him, yet those who searched them without coming to Him missed life altogether (John 5:39-40). When believers remain for extended seasons in genealogies, ceremonial laws, and national judgments—without the constant interpretive light of the Gospels and Epistles—they may begin to absorb weight without warmth, command without comfort, warning without wound-healing grace.
I have seen sincere Christians grow anxious, rigid, and introspective—not because Scripture failed them, but because they read it without balance. They learned much about God yet drifted from daily communion with God. Paul tells us plainly that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). This does not mean the Old Testament is dangerous; it means it must be read through the cross, through resurrection, through the indwelling Christ who now lives in us (Galatians 2:20).
The early Church did not live in a constant Sinai thunderstorm. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching—the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 2:2). The law was their tutor, but Christ was their home. The danger of prolonged imbalance is not intellectual error alone; it is spiritual misalignment. We begin to measure ourselves by performance rather than promise, by effort rather than faith, by distance rather than nearness.
Read the Old Testament—yes, deeply and reverently. But read it with Christ, through Christ, and alongside Christ revealed plainly in the New Testament. Let the Psalms teach you to pray, the Prophets teach you to hope, but let the Gospels teach you to behold—and the Epistles teach you to abide. Scripture is not a ladder we climb to reach God; it is a window through which we see the God who has already come to us in Jesus Christ (John 1:14).
BDD
