Devotional Reading vs. Bible Study
Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) wrote a prayer that ended with this plea: “O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly; for thine own sake.”
The truth is that the more we know God, the more we will love Him; and the more we love Him, the more closely we will follow Him. But the opposite is equally true: We won’t follow Him if we don’t love Him because following Jesus is hard. And we won’t love Him if we don’t truly know Him because we won’t trust His love for us in this broken world where pain and suffering abound.
The good news is that God has revealed Himself to us through His written Word. We can know Him.
This is why reading, understanding, and applying the Bible to our lives is so important. It’s not about earning God’s approval or checking off a list. It’s about getting to know the God of the universe as He has chosen to reveal Himself.
When we read and study Scripture, we learn who God is and what He is like. We learn His character and His nature and what following Jesus looks like. We read accounts of those who walked with God and demonstrated the power of faith in a broken world. And we grow to love this God who made Himself known to us with love and compassion, offering us the gift of eternal life in Him.
That’s why I am so passionate about encouraging women to read and study God’s Word. I have found over the years that we generally take one of two approaches to our intake of Scripture, based primarily on our personalities: purely academic or purely devotional.
Actually, we need both, and here’s why.
The problem with the purely academic approach is we leave little room for the Holy Spirit to speak. We read with an eye on interpretation but not on the Bible’s ability to speak into our lives.
The problem with the purely devotional approach is we skip to application without discovering the intended meaning gleaned from the historical, cultural, literary, and biblical context. We risk making the Bible say what we want it to.
We need both the academic and the devotional approach to balance these two errors.
What does that look like?
The word exegesis comes from the Greek ex-, meaning “out” and gesis, meaning “to lead or guide,” so it literally means “to lead out of or guide out of.”
When we use exegesis, we are allowing the text to guide the meaning out of the passage.
The opposite is eisegesis, taken from ei-, meaning “in” and gesis, meaning “to lead or guide,” so it literally means “to lead into or guide into.”
When we use eisegesis, we are reading into a text something we already believe to be true, a doctrine for instance.
We always bring who we are—our experiences, our culture, our worldview–to the text, unless we are careful not to impose those views on it.
A third term is hermeneutics, which the art of interpretation.
Exegesis: What did the author say to the original audience who heard it?
Hermeneutics: What does that mean? What principle can I apply?
Exegesis: What did it say then and there (original context)?
Hermeneutics: What does it mean here and now (personal application)?
Without the here and now, our study is just academic with no application or change of heart.
Without the then and there, we risk misinterpreting and misapplying Scripture that is not in line with God’s heart and intent.
Let’s study and read with both in mind as we seek to know Him more and love Him better.
Devotional Reading vs. Bible Study
First, let’s talk about devotional reading. Devotional reading of the Bible focuses on spending time in the Word daily. It involves reading the Bible and meditating on the Scripture.
The goal is to nurture our faith, find encouragement, and deepen our relationship with God because we are connecting with Him through His Word.
Devotional reading often involves reading through the whole Bible to get the big picture view or metanarrative of the Bible. A good approach would be to use a chronological Bible reading plan.
Many people don’t realize that our English translations are not in chronological order which can make the historical accounts, the prophets, and even understanding the context of the New Testament letters somewhat difficult. Reading these accounts in chronological order helps us place events into the historical framework that allows our minds to process and better understand what was written and why.
Devotional reading allows us to go wide rather than deep, giving us the 30,000 ft airplane view of how it all fits together to tell one beautiful story of redemption.
Devotional reading involves thinking, meditating, reflecting, and praying through Scripture in order to grow our relationship with God as we learn what He is like.
Devotional reading is great for new believers who maybe have never read the whole Bible because the Bible itself brings context to each individual book.
Often, we begin a Bible reading plan but then get bogged down in some of the Old Testament books that don’t seem relevant to our daily lives. But if we will continue to read, looking for what it tells us about God and ourselves, eventually we will see that all of those books are essential to the big-picture story.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16, NIV
All of Scripture is useful to us, even if it’s not readily applicable in some way. It teaches us about God, and that’s the most important aspect of our spiritual lives. Remember, the more we know Him, the more we will love Him. Those Scriptures are building a foundation of trust in our lives as we learn that God is holy, righteous, good, faithful, present, unchanging, just, merciful, compassionate, etc.
Even what may not be applicable right now is renewing our minds and helping us to think biblically. And it may be preparing our hearts for what is to come.
Then there comes a time when believers need to grow beyond reading the Bible and go deeper and grow in the Word.
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…”
Colossians 1:9-10
We need to grow deeper in our knowledge of God. That leads us to Bible Study.
Bible study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the biblical text, its historical and cultural context, and what God intended to communicate to us.
It involves a little more than just reading, including observation, interpretation, and application.
Bible study gets at the theological principles and application to one’s own life and circumstances.
Bible study typically involves comparing different translations and using study tools such as commentaries, cross-references, and concordances. But it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming.
The primary goal of Bible study is to interpret the meaning of the text accurately and apply its teachings to one’s life.
Asking good questions as we read helps us to understand the text in its original context.
While both devotional reading and Bible study are valuable approaches to engaging with the Bible, they differ in their focus and intended outcomes. We may be reading devotionally through the Bible daily and doing more in-depth Bible study weekly. Or we may use these two approaches during different seasons of our lives.
The point is that we need both approaches if we want to get a broad or wide understanding of the context of the whole Bible, while also going deeper in God’s Word so that we might know Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly.
May the Lord richly bless your time in His Word and grow your faith.