The Whole Bible

A short quiz – See how you do.

Is Jonah a book of the Bible or just a story?
What is part two of the Gospel of Luke?
Is Zedekiah a book of the Bible?
Name two main characters found in II Samuel.
What is the significance of the word “covenant”?
What is the message of the Bible? How does the Old Testament fit into
your summary?

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16-17

How should we approach the Bible? Is II Timothy true? Therefore, is every word of Scripture important for us to be exposed to?

Too often our approach to Scripture is similar to our approach at a church potluck. We scan all the options and only choose items we like. Now, in a potluck, that is appropriate and even expected, but this approach should not be used with Scripture. The Bible is the story of God’s redeeming work toward humankind. Imagine reading a novel where you skip around the book and read only a small minority of the chapters. You may have some idea about the plot and how the story ends, but you have no idea how it all comes together and how each character and event is significant in the story.

There is no trivial information in Scripture. There are no parts that are OK to skip. Instead, God desires to reveal Himself to you through the WHOLE story. Leviticus is crucial. So is Song of Solomon. So is Obadiah and Jude. And even the challenge of Revelation is a means by which God desires to reveal Himself and speak to us.

Two challenges:
1) Avoid the potluck approach. Focus on some of the content you’ve never
read before. Get some help. Find a commentary or survey which helps you better understand the summary of the book you read. Challenge your small group or Bible study or family to do this together. Be able to answer this question: How does (the book you choose) fit into God’s story? How is it an important part of His message?

2) Avoid the “mining for nuggets” approach. Sometimes we try and read between the lines of Scripture. We search for the hidden message or focus on minor details and try to make more of them than is intended. The Bible fits together and it is interesting to see how God has put his book together, but don’t look so deeply into the forest that you lose sight of how individual trees fit into the big picture.

For an overview of the story of the Bible, see Vaughan Robert’s book, “God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible.” (IVP, 2002)