Most people have never read the Bible for themselves, and it shows.
A good majority of people have only heard the stories of the Bible quoted, misquoted, read, and misread by people in a church or from family members, or from TV evangelists, or from people on the street.
Sadly, to say what most people have only heard about the Bible they have used to form their opinions of it and the God it describes.
This is extremely unfortunate. As someone who has read and studied the Bible for going on 17 years now alongside a long list of other religions and spiritual practices, I know without a doubt there is power in reading things for ourselves and much more so reading such a powerful book for ourselves.
There are stories designed to help us grow, poems written to describe our pain, words when used knowledgably that can heal us from our ailments, chapters dedicated to wisdom so valuable most people are paying to hear it regurgitated from someone else. The Bible is one powerful book.
I am here today to give you 7 reasons why you should pause listening to those sermons, avoid the conversations, let go of how the church hurt you even if just for a little while, and take a break from the fellowship and choose to sit down with you, God, and the Good Book and read it for yourself today. Keep reading because I know you're interested.
1. Try Something New
As I said above most people have never read the Bible for themselves.
Most of the time in church we flip to the pages preachers tell us to go to or outside of church we look up a line here and there to prove someone wrong, but most people have never sat down and read the Bible word for word for themselves.
So, if for no other reason how can you allow yourself to go an entire lifetime without quenching a bit of curiosity. The Bible taken at face value is a book that has been the center of controversies, conflicts, wars, arguments, fights, heated discussions. It has separated families, friends, lovers, people from their common sense.
This lifetime that we are living in provides an opportunity to see what the hype is all about. To dig deep down into a text that has baffled anthropologists, geologists, astrophysicists, psychologists, mathematicians, scientists, and some of the greatest minds this world has come to know.
If you were one of those people who ran to see what made books like "Fifty Shades of Grey" so captivating (and captivating it was) or why "A Little Life" made so many people cry, then the Bible, in that case, is definitely worth a try.
2. To Speak From a Confident, Knowledgeable Place
There is so much information floating around today. Whether we are watching the news, scrolling through socials, or overhearing a conversation at a coffee shop, the ability to gather information is at an all time high.
Wouldn't it be nice to know which information is factual and which is merely opinion?
When we interact with things on our own, for ourselves, we put ourselves in the position of knowledgeable, confident gatherers of information rather than passive consumers of it.
We begin to train our ears to know what is factual or at least actual for a certain thing and to filter out what is bias and truly false news.
People today are throwing around quotes and meanings and interpretations of Bible text without having any true context. They merely overhear a line or a story and say, "uh I don't like that. Why would anyone say that?"
Yet, we do not do that with other bits of information, hopefully not.
We hopefully aim to get full context before we go out speaking and sharing our opinions on matters. If we don't do that, we are guilty of filling the world with empty, contextless noise. Guilty of creating confusion and misunderstandings. If that is your goal then by all means continue on, but I would hope that something so damaging wouldn't be anyone's goal.
When we read the Bible for ourselves we are able to share information, context, and facts about it from a place where words actually have roots, meaning, and purpose. Hopefully that is the goal you desire to achieve no matter the information that you share with others. Hopefully.
3. It Grows As You Grow
The one thing that many of us hope for from friends, family, or lovers is that as we grow, they grow, or in the very least they accept what we grow into when we do it.
We know often this is not the case with the ones we love and care for. In fact, more often than not we grow and from those who can't appreciate our growth, we grow apart.
This is the exact opposite of the relationship we begin to nurture when we read the Bible for ourselves.
Another name for the Bible is the Living Text. Most scholars, readers, and studiers of the Bible call it this for its ability to grow and change and meet us wherever we are whenever we pick it up.
Reading any book from the Bible today may teach you one lesson, while revisiting that book the next day, week, month or year may provide all new lessons for you to explore and grow from. This is because the Bible grows as it is growing you and grows with you as you're growing in life.
When we are having a hard time seeing the purpose of attending church or in reading the Bible for ourselves it more than likely is because, like all humans, many people in church are only that, people. And with people comes the ability to grow, but also the more likely action of staying the same. This means those individuals will interpret what they read from the Bible the same, teach it the same, and understand it the same.
Yet, very common human effect of staying in place is not a fact of what reading the Bible is like and is more of a tell of what most humans are like.
If you are a human that chooses growth, and grows often, the Bible is the perfect text to get into because it meets you where you are and grows as you do whenever you do.
4. Face Your Fears
I am not exactly sure how this may sound to you but some people have a great fear of the Bible.
Whether it is all the talk of demons or worries about its overwhelming size, it makes sense why some would fear this Biblical text.
There are many conversations that occur about the Bible. Many of the conversations surrounding it are based off of the opinions of people who haven't read it for themselves who them converse about it and generate a collection of feelings and opinions in others who have not read it that lead them down the road to fear town.
Some people are disgusted with the Bible thinking it is a completely patriarchal text, others are terrified that the Bible seeks to condemn them to hell for things they enjoy doing, others look at the state of the world and see it on fire and question the importance of reading about a God that can sit back and watch us all burn.
This is the importance of reading the Bible for ourselves. Most times when we are afraid of something it is because we do not know much about that thing. Because we do not know much about a thing our minds fill up with all the ways that thing can be harmful, dangerous, or problematic to us. We form opinions about those things and our opinions harden around us to protect ourselves in case of danger, while the true risk lies in us being so rigid that we keep out things that can benefit us greatly.
Don't let fear stand in your way of accomplishing anything or of giving something a try. The best way to overcome any fear, especially a fear of reading the Bible, is by doing it scared anyway.
5. Gain Wisdom and Knowledge
The Bible first and foremost above anything else is a book. We read books to teach us things, to show us new perspectives, to give us different insights into life and the way we live it.
We can go back and forth on why one should read or shouldn't read the Bible but if we are looking to gain wisdom, knowledge, and information at a wild rate the Bible is the perfect place to start.
Written by different authors, across multiple timespans, studied by a wide variety of scholars, and discussed by almost every human being who has reached the talking stage, there is so much we can gain from interacting with the Bible, those who read it, and from learning about those who wrote it.
If we want to be able to participate in the conversations as informed and confident participants reading it for ourselves is the only acceptable way for us to join in on the conversation.
6. Self-Growth
When we get deeper into our studies of any text what we read can unveil hidden concepts we never knew existed or reflect back to us thoughts we never considered about ourselves.
The Bible does this in the best way. The Bible is a text that acts as a measuring stick capable of providing measurements for any and all who read it in the form of exposure to messages that mirror our own struggles, stories that show our hidden fears, and concepts that open our minds to what we are capable of.
If we are people who are seeking to grow, these "measurements" can be helpful by showing us exactly the areas where growth is possible and even necessary.
When we are willing to open our minds to the lessons and truths that lie within the Bible we begin opening ourselves up to learning, understanding, and growing in ways we never thought possible. Given a chance to stare into the abyss, many time it stares back into us and reveals exactly what we are, want to be, and may become.
7. They Didn't Want You To
Last, but nowhere near least, the 7th reason that we should read the Bible for ourselves is because in many cases for many people "they" didn't want you to.
If you identify as black there was a "they" that didn't want you to read the Bible. White enslavers would threaten our ancestors with death and most times follow through on those threats. The enslavers would go to wild lengths to ensure enslaved peoples did not learn how to read. They would beat, maim, hang, burn, kill any and all those daring enough to try and even touch a Bible without permission. Other than when allowed to Bible interaction was only done in the presence of enslavers. What was studied and shared with our enslaved ancestors was controlled violently by enslavers, and the interaction ended when enslavers said it did, not lasting a minute more or a minute less.
Such harsh control of the Bible was not only pushed upon enslaved peoples, but on free white and European women as well. Men made it particularly difficult for these women to read books, including and especially the Bible. Groups of men like the Church of Nicaea would remove women's stories from the texts, misinform women about the roles of women in the text, and go as far as also ensuring women could not read or have access to religion or religious studies in the world of academia.
The Church of Nicaea for instance debated removing Jesus' mother, Mary, completely from the text, because they thought her having such a powerful role would encourage women to demand more power, can you believe that? Although not always as harsh as the punishments received by enslaved men and women, the punishments free white and European women would often receive for interacting with the text solo were still harsh. Women found themselves banned and barred from attending churches without escorts, in danger of beatings and torture if they dared express a wish to study theology, and based on the time frame women could be thrown into asylums, tossed into inquisitions, and even beheaded for reading the Bible.
With such brutality on the line I cannot help but wonder why would people go to such lengths to keep another people away from a book? Maybe its just a gross use of power and control, or could it be that book had something powerful, magical, enlightening in it that they did not wish for us to see.
For me the history that surrounds the Bible spelled out only one choice, read the Bible in spite of the "theys". Read the Bible because today I have the freedom to access things my ancestors could only dream of accessing in private. Read the Bible for the men, women, children who couldn't.
What will you choose to do with your freedom?
So, there you have it the 7 reasons why you should read the Bible for yourself.
I hope to be able to discuss this powerful text with you one day, both you and me as confident and informed gatherers of information who are taking back our power and interested in growing into the best versions of ourselves.
With that said. Thank you for reading today.
I appreciate you.
I am grateful for you.
Write to you next Tuesday!