Helpful Hints To Better Understand The Bible

I talk to many people in church and out of church who say they either don't read the bible at all or they read it very little. The primary reason I hear is not lack of time, it is lack of understanding. Many have said they try to read the Bible and give up shortly after they start because they don't get anything out of it and they don't understand what they read. I know, because I used to be one of those people. My Bible had more dust on it than a TV screen in the same room with a fireplace that hasn't seen Windex in a month.

I'd like to share some things I have learned about getting more out of reading the Bible and hopefully these will be helpful. I found from personal experience that once I understood the Bible more, I wanted to read it more. By reading it more, I understood it more, etc.

The scripture reference I'd like to use is in James 1:21-25

"21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror:
24 For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was.
25 But whosover looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

When looking at scripture it is important to know who is writing, who is being written to and why. James (a Jew) is writing to his fellow Jewish believers telling them how to be saved, but we can certainly still learn from it. Now you may say, hold it. What do you mean James is writing to fellow believers telling them how to be saved? If they are believers they are already saved. Well, yes they are. However, salvation comes in 3 tenses... past, present and future. You may ask what's the difference. I'll see if I can explain it and let the answer begin with the letter "P" for easier recall.

Past Tense Salvation - This happened the instant you trusted Jesus Christ as you Savior. You will never have to die and go to Hell because Jesus paid the price for you. Past tense salvation means you no longer are under the Penalty of sin.


Present Tense Salvation speaks of being saved from the Power of Sin. Look at the end of verse 21 "... which is able to save your soul." The greek word for soul is 'Psuche'.. which roughly speaking is your mind, emotion and will. James is telling us how to keep our mind, emotion and will in check and in line with God.


Future Tense Salvation comes when Jesus returns and we are changed into a new sinless creation. This is being saved from the Possibility of Sin. Once Jesus comes back and we are changed in a twinkling of an eye, we will be perfect and there will be no sin in us or even the possibility of sin in us because there is no sin in a Holy Heaven. What a time to look forward to.


Ok you say, that's nice and all but how does that help me better understand the Bible? Well this passage in James gives 4 ways to better receive God's Word when you read it. Instead of the letter "P", I am going to let each of these begin with the letter "R".

1) We should welcome the Word with a Repentant Spirit

Look again at verse 21 "Lay apart all filthiness and superfluidity of naughtiness." The word translated here as filthy is "rhuparia" and it is closely related to the term used for ear wax. James is telling us to get the spiritual wax out of our ears. How do our ears get this spiritual ear wax and how do we get rid of it? This wax comes from unconfessed sin in our lives. That's why it is important to repent of the sins you recognize or "come clean" before you attempt to hear from God through His word. Another analogy could be having spiritual weeds. Remember the parable about the sower. God's word is seed and any farmer knows before you plant the seed, you have to weed the garden. If we expect to hear from God, we have to do a self examination and come clean with or repent of those sins which hurt our fellowship with God. That is why the first step to better understanding the Bible is to approach the Bible with a Repentant Spirit.

2) We Should Welcome the Word with a Receptive Spirit. Look again at verse 21 "... receive with Meekness.." What is meekness? Meekness is not weakness. It is power under control. We can not dig into the Bible and treat it like a math or science book and try to draw truth out. Notice the word "receive". There are two words in the Greek for receive. One is "Lombano" which means to grasp, to reach out and take for youself. James does not use that meaning here because we can non just snatch truth out of the Word of God. James uses the other word for receive and it is "Decomai" which means to welcome, to openly receive as you would receive a guest in your home. We must come to the Word of God with a receptive, meek spirit and ask God to show us the truths He would have us to see. God is under no obligation to show anyone His truths if they don't first come to the Word with a repentant spirit.

So the next time we sit down to study the Bible we need to ask ourselves, are we meek? First question is are we clean, second question is are we meek and the two go hand in hand. If we are not meek we are not even going to admit when we are not clean.

3) We must welcome the Word with a Responsive Spirit. Look now at verses 22-23... "be doers of the Word and not hearers only." We can be clean and meek but if we are not obedient to what we read, God is not going to reveal any new truths to us. There a couple of scriptures that address this.

Matthew 7:26-27 "And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Luke 11:28 " blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."

If we want a blessing, if we want to build our faith on a strong foundation, we need to be obedient to what we read. Once we do that, God will then trust us and reveal more truths to us.

Here is a practical example of what I mean. Suppose you had a young child and you assigned them certain household duties to perform in order to earn an allowance. The more difficult the job, the more allowance they would earn. You assign them to clean their room. They don't do it. Then later, when there is a new video game out that they want to get and need extra money, they come to you and ask if they can mow the lawn with the new fancy riding mower that even you have to read the manual to figure out how to operate. What would your reaction be? Would you say sure? Not hardly. What you would probably say is "why should I teach you how to operate this complicated mower when you didn't even do the simple task of cleaning your room?"

The Best way to understand the parts of the Bible that we don't understand is to obey the parts we do understand.

4) We must Welcome the Word with a Reflective Spirit. Look at verses 23-24: "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was."

So many of us are guilty of reading the Bible with a cavalier, casual glance. We are much like the person who looks at themselves briefly in the mirror and soon forgets what they see. Many times we read the Bible and may come across an interesting new truth but later on forget what it was. It is a good idea to have a pen and notebook with us when we read. Much like in a classroom, doing this shows God we are expecting to hear from Him and are ready to write down and meditate on what is revealed to us.

The Bible is not like any other book. We read other books, the Bible reads us. We see ourselves when we read the Bible that is why James uses the metaphor of a mirror. The Bible will reveal things in us that we need to address. Shortcomings that many times we don't want to face up to. You know the expression that says "mirrors don't lie." Well, just like the mirror, the Word of God doesn't lie and we may even discover things about ourselves that make us uncomfortable but we need to hear. This is also where the meek spirit comes into play. We must be willing to accept what we see about ourselves and not turn away from it.

We all like to receive a blessing don't we? Look at verse 25 again "But whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

This verse tells us that if we look into God's Word, continue in it, meditate and remember what we read, and are then obedient to what we read that we shall be "blessed indeed."

The Next time we sit down to read the Bible we need to think about the 4 "R's".... Repentant Spirit, Receptive Spirit, Responsive Spirit, and Reflective Spirit. I believe if we follow this pattern that the Bible will begin to come alive to us and not only will we understand more of what we do read, we will actually want to read more of it more often. Let's keep those dust bunnies off our Bibles and truly experience what God would have us to from His Word.