Most people know they should read their Bible. Unfortunately, most people don’t give practicals on how to grow in reading your Bible beyond “just do it.” I’ve invested significant time learning about the Bible, so I wanted to share these practical tips for growing in knowledge. These tips aren’t just applicable to the Bible, but also to other areas of life. Hopefully, you find them helpful! 

35 Tips to Grow in Knowledge of the Bible

1. Nothing beats time. Your 85-year-old grandma knows way more about Scripture than you because she’s been reading the Bible since before your parents were even a thought, much less you. Embrace the fact that you’re on this journey for the long haul.
2. When you’re reading your Bible, some days will be amazing, and some days will make you question whether you understand English. The majority of the days will be average. Focus on making your average day better; it makes your amazing days more amazing, and makes your bad days less bad.
3. Consistency is king. If you’re trying to start a daily Bible plan and can’t see yourself doing it for 2 years straight, you’re biting off more than you can chew. Start smaller.
4. “Lord, I don’t understand this passage, but store this in my heart and help me to understand” is a great prayer when Scripture makes zero sense.
5. Audiobooks, podcasts, and Speechify are gifts from God.
6. Be the dumbest person in the room; you’ll get really smart pretty quickly,
7. Nobody is “too busy” to read their Bible every day. You can read a couple of verses in the bathroom. Problem solved.
8. Don’t be discouraged by small beginnings. If you read five verses daily, that’s 1825 verses in a year, 18,250 verses in 10 years, and 36,500 verses in 20 years. The Bible has roughly 31,102 verses in total.
9. The Gnostics, an early Christian heresy, considered the Old Testament worthless. Don’t be a functional Gnostic; read your Old Testament. It also makes the New Testament way more interesting.
10. The Bible was not written in English; it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Treat it as such.
11. The Holy Spirit is not responsible for your wrong interpretation. If that were the case, Paul wouldn’t have needed to write letters to correct his congregations. Growing in knowledge of Scripture requires doing the hard work of reading and thinking.
12. Learn about the different genres in Scripture. It makes reading Scripture way more fun.
13. Old people can be boring, but they are generally the most qualified to teach Scripture. An 18-year-old Instagram influencer probably doesn’t know anything compared to a 65-year-old systematic theology professor. Be careful about where you get information.
14. Surround yourself with peers who want to grow in Scripture knowledge and are willing to be wrong. You’ll fire each other up, and it makes life fun.
15. Don’t beat yourself up if you accidentally skip one day of reading Scripture. If you skip 14 days in a year, you still have a 96% success rate!
16. Humility is important. You’re gonna get stuff wrong and believe stupid ideas at some point. Be open to correction.
17. Leviticus is actually important; learn how to read it. Understanding Leviticus will unlock so many different things in Scripture.
18. Take care of yourself and get some sleep; caffeine is not a substitute. If you’re half-asleep in the morning and can barely function, morning Bible reading is probably not for you. That’s ok; find another time. The marks of a true Christian don’t include morning Bible reading.
19. Don’t choose a spot that is too comfortable to read; you’ll fall asleep. On the flip side, don’t choose a super uncomfortable spot to read; you’ll never go there. A kitchen table or bar stool works great: comfortable enough to read for a long time, but you’re (hopefully) not going to fall asleep.
20. Write questions down. Question-asking admits that we aren’t God and don’t know everything.
21. Write notes down. At the very least, looking back at how wrong you were will be funny. At best, you’ll record timeless insights that could encourage you for years.
22. Word-for-word translations are great but can be painfully hard to read. Thought-for-thought translations are great but can sometimes go off the rails. The takeaway? Read multiple translations; they each have their strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as a perfect translation, but there are better translations.
23. Logos software is your best friend; you can do things in seconds that would’ve taken hours previously. The base package is free.
24. Sometimes you should take your time with one verse. Sometimes you should speed-read large sections of the Bible. The ocean is both broad and deep.
25. The heavens are not gonna open up every time you read your Bible. Feeling is not the only indicator of a good Bible study.
26. Read stuff from all kinds of perspectives. At the very least, you’ll be able to articulate your position better, and at best, you’ll learn something new.
27. Be suspicious of any doctrine that is “rediscovered.” Some of the greatest geniuses in history have analyzed the Bible; it’s highly unlikely you discovered something new. The whole point of exegesis is to get back to the author’s original intent.
28. A good word study is more than searching a Greek word on BibleHub. A word’s meaning is not only its dictionary meaning but also its use by a particular author at a particular time. A good word study is sensitive to the word’s context. For example, if you could time travel to 2010 and tell somebody they have “rizz”, they’d probably have no clue what you’re talking about!
29. Your 10th-grade English class wasn’t as useless as you thought. Understanding basic English grammar goes a long way in Bible study; the Bible is a written document that uses grammar rules to convey information and meaning. If God humbled Himself to reveal His nature and character in the rules of grammar, how much more do we need to learn grammar!
30. Starting a sentence with “I feel like Scripture says…” is a good indicator you need to do more research.
31. You don’t have to be an expert, but reading texts contemporary with the Bible can shed a lot of light on what the Bible is trying to say.
32. Toss your phone across the room while reading your Bible. Nothing’s worse than receiving a text message from your ex while trying to understand Romans.
33. Noise-cancelling headphones are great for keeping distractions at bay.
34. For the really nerdy, you can create a free account at jstor.org and read 100 articles a month from journals like the Society of Biblical Literature and Catholic Bible Quarterly.
35. The Bible is not a science textbook; don’t read it like one.