You Don't Need a Degree to Read (and Understand) the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17) - Your Daily Bible Verse - January 21
You Don't Need a Degree to Read (and Understand) the Bible
By Matthew S. Harmon
”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 competent, equipped for every good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Anyone Can Study the Bible
Sometimes I think we make studying the Bible more complicated than it has to be.
There's a place for in-depth study and using all these remarkable resources that are available to us. But, at the end of the day, the goal is to encounter the living God.
And so as we learn to ask some basic questions of any passage, you don't need to be a biblical scholar, you don't need to have had advanced coursework, you don't even need to have been a Christian for very long. All you need is to be able to ask questions: What do we learn about God? What do we learn about people? How should I relate to God? How should I relate to others?
As we ask some of those very basic, simple questions, I believe the text starts to open up. Sometimes it actually raises even more questions. But oftentimes it quickly reveals things about God and about ourselves.
We realize that we can really benefit from reading, and it doesn't take complicated methods or techniques. It simply requires asking the right kinds of questions to point us in the right direction to relate to God and to be transformed by who God is and what he's doing in the pages of Scripture—realizing that he wants to do similar, transformative things in our own lives.
Reflect on today’s verse with us. Share your thoughts in the Your Daily Bible Verse discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
Photo credit: Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko
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Editor’s Note: This post is adapted from “Asking the Right Questions” by Matthew S. Harmon. It originally appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission. All rights reserved.
Related Resource: Praying Through Psalms 60: Victory in Hopeless Ground
What do you do when the battlefield stretches in every direction, and it looks like God Himself brought the defeat?
Join Jaime on the Praying Christian Women Podcast for a devotional on Psalm 60 — a raw, honest lament born out of being surrounded on all sides, where David dares to say You did this, God — and still picks up the banner and calls Him Lord.
Jaime unpacks the historical backdrop of David fighting enemies to the north, east, and south all at once, and shares a breathtaking story from her years near Death Valley — where barren, salt-crusted flats that look permanently dead suddenly erupted into a once-in-a-century bloom of purple wildflowers. Sometimes the victory is already buried right beneath the most hopeless-looking ground, waiting for God's rain to bring it to life. If this episode helps you navigate life with prayer and intention, be sure to follow Praying Christian Women on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
