Read the whole Bible?
Every January I give thought to whether or not to start a read-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.
It’s interesting taking a look on whether people think Christians even should:
Most people agree that all Christians should read their Bible every day
Some feel that slavishly working through the boring bits will have no lasting value; much better to read the richer passages
Others say that the chapter and verse divisions are so arbitrary that they break the literary flow, so reading those chunks breaks up the meaning anyway.
I actually think the answer is a bit more complex, and depends on where you are in your Christian experience.
Newer Christians (likely to be new to the Bible) should spend time in the gospels and some of the letters like Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians and James. Use a Welwyn Series commentary to help.
God spent a few thousand years putting his Bible together, and expects his people to understand it. If you’ve been a Christian a few years you really ought to have read it through. Daily Bible-reading plans make this much easier.
There will always be a need to dig deeper, so older Christians might want to take a break from daily Bible-reading plans and spend time meditating on one book at a time. Oddly, it’s at this point that familiarity with the whole Bible really pays off!
So, this year, I’ve started the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan again (tough, but wonderful) and expect to work my way through Ezekiel, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. We’ll see what happens after that!
