When I became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I was so excited to drop my cherry-picking ways of reading the Bible and dive right in and read the whole bible cover to cover. In my mind, I presumed that true followers of Christ have read the whole Bible more than once. I would ask every believer I met if they had read the whole Bible. To my surprise, most of them camped in the New Testament and cherry-picked a few books in the Old Testament, at least those they found exciting to read. This baffled my mind because I thought, don’t you want to know the whole redemptive story of the gospel, God-driving history from Genesis to Revelation? For the record, I am not suggesting that the Bible should be approached with a legalist mindset to check a box but believers should delight to commune with God through His word.
The whole Bible is inspired by God and has a purpose for our lives, as the Apostle Paul tells Timothy.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The word of God is designed to train us for righteousness and equip us for every good work. Ponder on that a bit. The Lord loves His children so much that He has provided His word to grow believers as they walk in obedience and equip them to serve each other in the body of Christ. Our Lord prayed for believers that the word would be used to sanctify them.
John 17:17 ESV
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Ponder again, dear Christian, the provision of God to produce glorious Christ-likeness in you as you feed on this spiritual food and, through His Spirit, help you obey and achieve that end. Does that encourage you to have an appetite not just to cherry-pick but to savor the whole counsel of God? I submit to you again to consider that knowing God in His true character can only happen as you savor His word and that helps you not just know about God but grow to know Him personally and trust Him (Psalm 9:10). You see, there is such a joy to be known by God; would you be encouraged to know the one who has fully known and loved you in Christ?
I also acknowledge it can be daunting when you think of all the books to read. Some books are not easy to read. However, you might use that coupled with other reasons to be slothful in diving through all of God’s word. I am here to tell you it is not impossible; it is doable. The best thing to resolve is to start today. Do you have a plan and a set time for Bible reading? Get one. Do you feel overwhelmed to do it all alone? Seek a friend or friends to read the Bible with you. Do you get stuck trying to understand one book and give up altogether? I encourage you to start by reading through surveying the whole Bible, then move on to study at least with a foundation of what it is about. Be creative with different plans so it doesn’t feel monotonous, and combine that with secondary resources like podcasts, articles, sermons, and the like.
Walk through it all, don’t cherry-pick, sit down with Moses and marvel as God creates the world, grieve as sin enters the world, follow through as God chooses one family, Israel, through Abraham to bring along the salvation to His people, see yourself in the lives of the Israelites and admit that the heart is the problem, watch their demand for a king, a divided kingdom, watch them go to exile after being warned through God’s prophets, see then come back and rebuild the temple and admit with God in Ezekiel that Israel needs a new heart that God needs to give through Christ, Ezekiel 36:26–27. Yes, Obadiah is also a book of the Bible—the shortest book in the Old Testament. Watch him pronounce judgement against the Edomites. Let your heart anticipate with the Old Testament of the Messiah. Sigh at the 400 years of silence, then behold ooh, behold with joy when Jesus Christ takes the scene in the Gospels, see Him in his life, death, and resurrection to save us sinners (Mark 2:17–19). See the Lord start the church with the apostles, especially Peter, who was restored after defiantly denying Jesus; be astounded as you are introduced to the persecutor of the church, who is changed by the gospel; and this Paul writes most of the New Testament, contend with Jude for the faith, see Hebrews shout that Christ is preeminent, see how to love believers in 1 John as the Apostle John ushers you in into the Revelation of Jesus Christ; and marvel that in the end, the King of Kings reigns over all and every knee bows to Him. Finally look up to the Lord and say with the Apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus,“ and take your people Home, Revelation 2:20.
I hope I have encouraged you to savor the whole Bible and be dissatisfied with cherry picking.
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