Growing in Faith

Learning the Bible Like a Second Language

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment
Open Bible on a dark table with the quote “Fluency doesn’t happen by accident—not in language, and not in Scripture.”

Learning Spanish has been a wish…desire…of mine for many years. I live in southeast Texas and have many bi-lingual Hispanic friends. They’ve learned my language, and I want to understand theirs. This would help me communicate with others too, of course. About a year ago, I set learning Spanish as a goal, and I started studying.

It’s been a struggle, guys! In fact, I grew so frustrated at the end of last year that I stopped everything for two or three months. When I picked it back up recently, I figured I’d have forgotten all I’d learned and would have to start over.

I was delightfully surprised by what I recalled, and I’m slowly progressing again, praise God. I’m nowhere near ready to carry on even the most basic conversation, but I occasionally pick up on things my friends say and it’s encouraging.

Just this morning, I had an epiphany about something seemingly unrelated—the Bible.

I’ve known many Christians who said they wanted to read the Bible, but when they picked it up they didn’t understand it or get anything out of it. Is this you?

If so, consider this.

Well, I have more than one thing for you to consider and the first may seem confrontational, but I promise it’s not. Stick with me.

So, first, are you a Christian? By that, I mean do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived without sin so He would be an acceptable sacrifice for your sin, died on the cross to be that sacrifice, and rose again on the third day? Have you accepted Him as your Savior, the One who died for you, and your Lord, the One to whom you owe allegiance and obedience in every part of life?

I ask this question because, as I heard a minister say once, if you’re not a Christian, attempting to read the Bible is like trying to read someone else’s mail. Frankly, the Bible was written for God’s covenant people, and without the Holy Spirit you’ll have a hard time grasping much of it.

Or, to return to my history with Spanish, it’s like it would be if I were to pick up a textbook written in Spanish. I wouldn’t understand it, not because I’m stupid, but because my lack of fluency means I would only be able to grasp a word or phrase here or there.

If you answered that no, you are not a Christian, but you’re ready to accept Jesus, let’s pause a sec. If you believe this and are willing to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, it’s as easy as saying a simple prayer. You can pray this right now. 

God, I come to you ready. I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and lived without sin so that He could die for me, so He could pay the price for my sins. I accept that sacrifice! I also believe He rose again on the third day, was taken up into Heaven, and sits at Your side now. Jesus, I accept You as my Savior and my Lord, and I commit to live for You. In Your name, Amen!

If you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God! Now let’s keep going.

When you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, you also receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the best Teacher of all. As Jesus said in John 14:26 (NET): “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.”

Now let’s return to the very first thing I said. “Learning Spanish has been a wish…desire…of mine for many years.” It was a wish for many years but stayed a wish. Then it progressed to being a desire but stayed a desire. Nothing changed. I wanted to learn Spanish, but I didn’t learn Spanish. Why?

If wishes were fishes, no one would ever go hungry.
(But they’d get terribly tired of fish.)

Yes, it’s a silly expression, but I think you get my point? I hadn’t learned Spanish because I hadn’t decided to learn Spanish. I didn’t follow through until I changed my mindset and made it a goal. For years, I’d consciously picked up words here and there, like many Christians pick up a Bible verse here and there. And, just like those random Bible verses, the words were tucked away in my brain, but without any context attached.

My point is that learning the Bible takes studying the Bible. It can start with “simply” reading the Bible, but as you read you should be listening for the voice of your Teacher, the Holy Spirit. As you do, you’ll see things you simply can’t catch on your own. Before you start to read, pray. As Him to teach you. He will!

And as you grow in your relationship with the Bible and with the Holy Spirit, you’ll grasp even more. But learning doesn’t happen without effort on your part. It takes an investment, just like learning anything else does.

And that investment is worth it. 

Me learning Spanish can greatly help me and every Spanish speaker I meet, but that cannot even remotely compare to the value of me making God’s Word a part of my very being.

Fluency doesn’t happen by accident—not in language, and not in Scripture.

As I’ve heard it said, a man will invest years in becoming a lawyer, mechanic, accountant…whatever. And these are only careers that will help him in this life. The Word of God would help him in this life too, more than career training ever could, and…more importantly…it would prepare him for eternity.

But his Bible sits, unread, on the shelf.

Don’t be that man.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Reading Scripture in Context: A Guide for Growing Faith

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Ronnie Trice, my pastor’s father, often said about reading the Word, “When you see ‘therefore,’ you need to see what it’s there for.”

I’ve never forgotten this instruction, but I must confess I sometimes forget to act on it. Little transition words like “so,” “then,” and “for” might seem insignificant, but they carry a lot of weight. And, sad to say, they’re all too easy to ignore.

Take the word “if.” It indicates conditions. That’s important when we’re talking about the promises of God. We get excited about God’s promises, and we should! But we too often overlook the conditions that come attached.

Let me give you a few examples.

John 15:7 (KJV)
Promise: “…ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
Condition: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you…”

2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Promise: “…will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Condition: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways then…”

1 John 1:9 (KJV)
Promise: “… he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Condition: “If we confess our sins…”

These aren’t hidden messages. They’re right in front of us in black and white (or red and white, if it’s Jesus talking), but we miss them when we skim the words or focus only on the parts we want to see.

Recently, I was reading from the Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude (RIV). In this version, Rick Renner takes the original Greek and brings out the meaning in a way that is both faithful to the text and alive with first century understanding. It made me appreciate transition words all over again.

Take a look at James 1:23. In the KJV it reads:

“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 glass.”

The word “for” is small, easy to skip over, but it’s crucial to the message. It ties everything back to what James has just finished saying and leads into what he has to say next. In the RIV, that same passage begins like this:

“You need to understand that if — as I’m certain is the case concerning what I’m about to say — anyone finds himself among those who merely show up to hear the Word but are not committed to putting it into practice…”

In other words, James was alerting his readers to the urgency of both what he had to say and how it all fit together.

What had he just said?

The end of verse 22 (still in the RIV) makes it crystal clear.

“These kinds of people make the grave miscalculation of thinking they’ve done all that is required by just showing up. Don’t trick yourselves into thinking that merely showing up and listening is all that’s required.”

Then come verses 23-24 where he talks about a man who looks in a mirror, sees things in his reflection that need to be fixed, then turns and walks away, forgetting all about what he’s seen. James is saying, “Don’t be that person!”

That’s a big “for.”

Of course, this truth holds up no matter which translation you choose. Transition words are like important signposts. They remind us of where the author has been and where he’s going. But here’s the thing: We’ve grown accustomed to reading the Bible in bits and pieces, chapter by chapter or even verse by verse, usually without thinking about how it was originally written.

Did you even know the Bible didn’t always have chapter and verse numbers?

It’s true. The Bible was originally written as continuous text. The chapter divisions we know today were first introduced in the 1200s, and verse numbering came even later. While they undeniably help us find things quickly, these divisions can also lead us to read verses in isolation, and this causes us to miss much of the flow and intent of the text.

Take Romans 8:1 for example.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

That “therefore” is a clue. It tells us to back up and see what led to this beautiful conclusion. When we start at Romans 7:21 and then read through Romans 8:4, we get the full context. In sharing his personal struggles with sin as well as the triumph we have through Christ Paul gives us a message that is only hinted at in Romans 8:1.

And then there’s Hebrews 12:1.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…”

Wherefore? Which witnesses? To answer these questions, you need to back up to the Hall of Fame of Faith found in Hebrews 11. Read about these heroes of the faith, see how they stood through everything in their lives, and you will be encouraged that you too can “run the race set before you.” And to truly grasp the full impact of Hebrews 12:1, I urge you to keep reading through 12:3. It’s all connected.

Experiencing the Bible is about more than reading a verse or two here and there. Don’t get me wrong: Cards and calendars that offer a scripture a day are good, but they are no substitute for truly diving into the Bible. If you want to let His words live in you as Jesus said in John 15:7, slow down, read in context, take it in fully, act on it, and watch it change you from the inside out.

That’s one reason I believe reading the Bible from cover to cover is one of the most powerful things you can do to grow in your relationship with God. When you follow the flow of Scripture, those little words — if, for, therefore, then, wherefore — become keys that unlock deeper understanding.

So next time you’re reading and come across one of them, pause.

Ask what it’s there for.

You might just discover it’s pointing to something life-changing.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

PS: If my references to the RIV intrigued you, you might want to check out my review of The Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude.