4 Ways Your Reading Your Bible Wrong

People wonder why there are so many different interpretations of the Bible. The reason is because they are not reading it the way the author intended it to be read. Here are 4 ways you are reading your Bible wrong.

1. Verse of the day. It is great to read a Bible verse. But not out of it’s context. The Bible was not meant to be read as an inspirational verse calendar. It is like ripping your thumb off your hand to be inspired by it. A thumb removed from the body is horrific. So is a Bible verse.
2. Reading it like it was meant for you. The Bible was originally written to specific people or churches. There is a lot of cultural stuff involved in the passages. There might be some principles in the passage you can apply or learn, but you most likely don’t have an ox you used for plowing or have to worry about going into Babylonian exile (reference to my first book, When My Ox Gores My Neighbor).
3. Allegorizing the Bible. The Bible was not written in allegory, written with secret meaning that are deciphered by some made up code. You don’t have to spiritualize every passage. God meant for the Bible to be interpreted literally in its historical-grammatical context within its genre.
4. Not reading it according to its genre. The Bible has poetry, historical narrative, prophesy, proverbs, and apocalyptic literature. When we try to read something that is historical narrative as poetry (like Genesis 1-11) then we get a wrong and distorted interpretation.

Thank you for reading this I hope that this has blessed you. For additional resources you can go to Josiah’s sermons for examples of going verse by verse through the Bible and using context to explain it. You can also go to the Resources page to see the Using Hermeneutics Book Series. If you buy these books they will teach you how to study God’s Word and you will be helping this ministry greatly. Please consider buying my books to help support this blog, I can’t do this on a regular basis without you. Lord bless you and study God’s Word.