Every Verse

God gave us a large Bible. God spoke a lot of words to His people over a long period of time. The beauty of the Bible and all of its words from God, is that it is all different. The Bible has poetry, parables, commands, stories, songs, vision, symbols, and even lists of peoples names. The Bible has stories that are fast and move along and it also has stories that are slow and take a long-time to finish. The Bible has parts that are fun and exciting and it also has parts that are boring and seem dull. The Bible has colorful images and it also has bland average stories. The Bible has parts that are easy to understand and it also has parts that are challenging and mysterious. Yet, Jesus Himself tells us, in the Bible, that every word, comma, or period is important in the Bible. This is why Jesus and every other speaker and writer in the Bible makes it clear, we as God's people are to read every single verse in the Bible.

Yes, reading the Bible, obeying the command to read the Bible, and living in the will of God, requires the reader to read every single verse in the Bible. There are verses in the Bible that are easy to understand and those that are harder to make sense of and apply. There are verses in the Bible that are more enjoyable to read and verses that are a chore to get through. And there are verses in the Bible we like to read and there are verses that we do not want to read. Yet, to obey God, we must read every single verse in the Bible and grow in our understanding of God and the right Christian life from every single verse, regardless of how we feel about the verse. That is the true challenge of the Christian life. Lets see a few examples of verses we enjoy and verses that we do not like to read.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

These are some of the verses that we enjoy reading. They bring us comfort, happiness, and good thoughts. These verses are the type of verses we are attracted to and enjoy reading all the time. Usually if we have time and we sit down to open our Bible to spend time with God (without some sort of structured plan) these are the types of verses we gravitate to.

Genesis 6:5
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

John 6:44
"No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him"

Romans 3:11-12
"No one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

These are some of the verses we do not like. When we come to these verses, we skip over them, read through them fast, or just plain out reject them. These are the types of verses we will never come to on our own, unless we are pushed, by outside sources to dig deeper into the Word. These are the type of verses we do not like at all.

Yet, this is the point of this post. Yes, reading the fun, easy, enjoyable verses is a good thing and very important. But as Christians, we also need to read, spend time studying, and even grow in our faith, from verses that we do not like or enjoy. To truly mature and grow in Christ and godliness, we as Christians must read the verses we do not like as much as we read the verses we enjoy and love. Let us grow in Christ by reading "all" of the Bible, especially the verses that are harder to swallow.