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How to Become Passionate About Bible Reading

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John Piper answers a question from a teenager wondering how to develop not only a duty but a passion for reading the Bible. His answer may be of help to you as well.

He begins:

Let me start this way: John Piper does not read through the Bible every year because there is a biblical law requiring me to do it; rather, because there’s something like — I don’t know what to call it — a natural or spiritual law in my soul that sets off alarm bells if I don’t. What I mean is this: my mental, psychological, spiritual condition has taught me over the years that without daily communion, daily fellowship with the living Christ, my God, my Savior, my treasure, my friend, in and through his word, the totality of Scripture — without that — my sight of him becomes blurred.

As you proceed in your Bible reading plan for the new year, you may want to consider the rest of his answer.

Check it out!

Why Read the Bible When So Many Teachers are Available Online?

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John Piper was recently asked this question, and his answer is fantastic.

1. Do you believe Psalm 119:99?
2. How will you test the reliability of your teachers by the word of God?
3. Why do you want to avoid the immediate, authentic experience of savoring your love letter by asking someone else to read it for you?

Of course, this is only the summary. His full answer is worth your consideration.

Check it out!

How to Know if Your Interpretation is Correct

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I’ve shared before John Piper’s crucial definition of the Bible’s “meaning”: What the author intended to communicate with his words.

Now in another brief video, Piper builds on that definition by showing us how that definition gives us an objective means by which we can evaluate whether an interpretation is right or wrong.

Check it out!

Context Matters: Precept Upon Precept

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When some of us learned about studying or teaching the Bible, one phrase seemed to be repeated as often as any other: precept upon precept, line upon line. In my experience, few verses are quoted and extolled as these when we’re encouraging our people to take the Bible seriously. Not only have we told our people that it is one good method among many, but some of us have said it’s the only right way to study the Bible. I’ve literally sung this phrase as a chorus in church.


But I sang those lines with a confused conscience. Having come across those words in Isaiah, I wondered if they could possibly mean what we thought they meant. Too embarrassed and fearful to express my concern, I told myself that I was no Bible expert and I could rest secure in my lack of knowledge. Surely, my sense that Isaiah was using those phrases — “line upon line” and “precept upon precept” — to mock God’s people couldn’t be correct! So, I set aside that precept and moved on to the next.

So writes Abigail Dodds, who then gives us a model Bible study in Isaiah 28. She observes, interprets, and applies, showing the train of thought from the context and calling us to have open ears to receive the Lord’s instruction.

Dodds does all this very well and concisely. I commend her article to you.

Context matters. Check it out!

How to Fight Boredom With the Bible

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Jon Bloom believes the Bible is anything but boring. And he wants to help you understand what a remarkable book it is that you can hold in your hands. This book is unequaled, audacious, and unrivaled.

Are we bored with it? Oh, boredom! That plague of our finite, fallen, self-oriented flesh that so easily loses appreciation for the most precious treasures simply when they become familiar! Forgive us, Father, and hasten the day when we lose our amazing capacity for boredom and gain an amazing capacity for sustained amazement!

Check it out!

More on the Bruised Reed

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As a follow-up to last week’s post on the metaphor of the bruised reed in Is 42:1-4 and Matt 12:15-21, here is an article I wrote for Desiring God. Here is a taste:

The metaphor seems self-evident. “Bruised reeds are people who are broken and needy, people worn out and tired and exhausted with life’s circumstances, people neglected by the world, but accepted by Jesus.” We casually toss the phrase out like a trump-suit ace impervious to counter-play. No need to explain; just assert: “Jesus never broke a bruised reed.”

But have you considered why the reed doesn’t get broken? Look at the text carefully, and you might find you’ve become a little too familiar with this biblical phrase and perhaps have missed a profound point. In fact, hastily assuming the “what” may have obscured your insight into the “why”…

We rightly marvel at Jesus’s deep compassion. We rightly delight in his commitment to the down-and-out of society, and we rightly long to imitate his works of service and provision. We rightly praise the one who brought hope and healing to those who had none.

But is the point of the bruised reed image Jesus’s compassion? Should we identify weak, lowly, or otherwise hurting people as the “bruised reeds” who weren’t — and thus shouldn’t be — “broken”? Interpreting the metaphor this way is often assumed rather than argued, but perhaps we’ve grown too familiar with it and should take another look.

Check it out!

Look and Look and Look

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When I first learned how to study the Bible, I heard the story of Professor Agassiz, telling his student to look, look, and look again at a fish. The story tells of the wonder and amazement that comes from simply learning how to observe. And it shows how difficult it is to overcome our assumption of familiarity which prevents us from observing as we ought.

It’s a classic illustration, and John Piper tells it beautifully in this short video from Desiring God.

Let this spur you to keep looking at the Scripture. You might think you already know it, but you’ll be amazed at how much more there is to see of the beauty and glory of Christ. Check it out!

HT: Andy Cimbala