About the Bible Reader’s Creed

​Here’s the Bible reader’s creed which I wrote, and which I follow as faithfully as I can:

With God’s help, I will read my Bible, every word, in the proportion that God gave, over and over again, for the rest of my life.

With God’s Help,

We read the Bible under God’s power, not our own.  If we read simply for the sake of reading, or if we read simply to finish our assignment and check a chapter off our checklist, we will most likely fail.  Bible reading will become a burden rather than a delight.

I will Read My Bible,

This is what we do: we read.  We don’t spend undo time studying, and we don’t get sidetracked chasing down various paths that might interest us.  Instead, we simply make a note of what we would like to learn more about, and then we keep reading.  Learning more about something comes under the subject of Bible study which is a separate activity from Bible reading.

Every Word,

God gave us the entire Bible, every word inspired.  God wants us to read His Word, all of it.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.  II Timothy 3:16

It simply won’t do for us to read only the passages we like, or only the passages we’re going over in our Thursday night Bible study.  We read every word.  Yes, we even read every word of those boring genealogies, and every word of the Jewish legal code.  It’s all there for a purpose.

In the Proportion that God Gave,

The Bible is three-fourths Old Testament and one-fourth New Testament.  We read the entire Bible from beginning to end, which means we spend three-fourths of our time reading the Old Testament and one-fourth of our time reading the New Testament.  This is the proportion that God gave.

Incidentally, the main difference between Bible reading and Bible study is simply this:  In Bible reading we give equal weight to all parts of Scripture.  In Bible study, we single out portions for further scrutiny.  Bible Study doesn’t give equal weight to all portions of scripture and it doesn’t require that we read the entire Bible.

Over and Over Again,

We don’t just read the Bible once and quit reading.  No, we bathe ourselves in the Word of God over and over again.  When we finish Revelation, we start again with Genesis.

The time we spend reading our Bibles is up to us individually.  My husband reads a little bit every day, and it may take him two years to get through the entire Bible.  But then he starts over again.

I prefer a much faster pace, two or three read-thoughs a year.  I may take a break between readings, but I always start again with Genesis and go for it.

For the Rest of My Life.

I plan on making Bible reading a feature of my walk with God for the rest of my life.  It’s like bathing in a refreshing pond, and I just love the Word!

Ellen’s little disclaimer:  When I wrote this creed I purposely left out the part about reading every day.

While I try to read my Bible daily, life has a way of intervening.  Some days I’m sick and some days I’m travelling, and, believe it or not, some days I simply don’t feel like reading.  We’ve all had days like that.

So I have chosen not to pledge that I will read my Bible every day without fail.  If I did that, Bible reading would develop into a burden instead of a refreshing delight.