My Strategy
When I was in seminary, I decided to read 1 John every day for 30 days. You should try it; it will only take you about 25 minutes to read it all the way through. Fight the temptation on about the eighth day to think you’ve got it down. If you stick with it, you’ll gain a tremendous comprehension of 1 John.
When preparing sermons, I always read through the pertinent book repeatedly until the whole book fills my mind in a kind of visual perception. It is also very helpful to take a three-by-five card and write down the major theme of each chapter. As you do this, you’ll begin to develop a mental map of the book you’re studying.
After 1 John, go to a large book in the New Testament like the gospel of John. Don’t be intimidated by the 21 chapters, just divide it into three sections. Read the first seven chapters for 30 days, the second seven for 30 days, and the third seven for 30 days. At the end of those 90 days, you will have pretty well mastered the content of the gospel of John along with memorizing the major theme of each chapter.
After the gospel of John, you might want to go to Philippians, another short book. Then you might want to go to Matthew, then to Colossians and then to Acts. Divide it up like that, continually going back and forth between a small book and a large book. Such a plan is highly achievable if you keep moving forward one step at a time. In approximately two and a half years, you will have finished the whole New Testament—and you’ll be on your third time through the Old Testament! You should read the Bible anyway, so you might as well read it in a way that you can remember it.
The Benefit
The Bible is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12).
You learn by repetition. The reading retention you gain from that will lay a wonderful foundation for the vital task of rightly interpreting the sacred text. Sound Bible interpretation is the next phase of Bible study and we’ll look at that next time.
