Everyone’s instinct is to read the Bible for understanding.

I totally appreciate this desire because the Bible has been so poorly understood through the years. We must look at the context, find the author’s intended meaning, and consider how it fits into our overall theology.

One problem with this push to understand is that some things we will never know completely. The Bible often records things that happen with little explanation. We can read that it happened, but we will never fully know what it means this side of heaven. This does not stop people from guessing and can lead to an endless stream of articles and arguments that typically prove unproductive.

Another issue is that gaining understanding can miss the purpose of scripture. The goal of the Bible is to change us into fully devoted followers of Jesus. Christians are people who do everything that Christ commanded (Matthew 28:20). Jesus himself said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). The result of scripture should be that we do what we read and nothing less.

My instruction to people is to read the Bible and look for ways they can apply it. Skip past the complex parts to understand, as they are usually more fodder for arguments than application. The ironic part is that the more you keep reading and applying, the clearer those hard-to-understand passages become.

It is far better to know only ten things from the Bible and do all ten of them than to learn a hundred things and do none of them.