Article 2 of 14 | Starting Point | 2 Timothy 3:16–17
by Dr. Timothy Mann
Start in the Gospel of John, not Genesis. Read a chapter at a time, ask God to speak before you begin, and keep a pen in your hand. Consistency beats volume every time: ten faithful minutes a day for a year will do more for your faith than an ambitious reading marathon that collapses in two weeks.
Start Where You Can Actually Finish
If you’ve never read the Bible before, resist the instinct to open at Genesis 1 and push straight through. I’ve watched a lot of sincere people try. Most bog down somewhere in Leviticus, decide the problem is them, and quit.
Start with the Gospel of John instead. John tells you plainly why he wrote it:
“that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).
It is among the most accessible books in the Bible and among the most profound. Read it slowly. One chapter at a time. Let it settle.
Read Expecting to Hear From God
This one sounds almost too simple, and it is everything. Before you open the Bible, take thirty seconds to ask God to speak to you through what you are about to read. He inspired it. He can illuminate it. Ask Him to make it alive to you, then read as though He will.
The difference between a duty and an encounter is often nothing more than those thirty seconds.
Read With a Pen in Your Hand
Mark what stands out. Write down questions. Circle words you don’t understand and look them up. Write in the margins.
Your Bible isn’t a museum piece to be preserved behind glass. It’s a working document, meant to be wrestled with. A Bible that shows wear is a Bible that is doing its job.
Consistently, Not Heroically
Don’t try five chapters a day. You’ll burn out inside of two weeks and carry the guilt of it for months.
Start with one chapter, or even one paragraph. Ten faithful minutes every day for a year will build something in you that a heroic Bible marathon never will. This is the long game, and God is patient with slow growth.
You Weren’t Meant to Figure This Out Alone
Find a church that teaches the Bible faithfully and get yourself under that teaching every week. One of the primary ways God designed His Word to enter your life is through the preaching and teaching of faithful pastors and teachers. Private reading was never meant to replace that. It was meant to be fed by it.
And when you hit something you don’t understand, which will happen constantly and should never discourage you, write it down and find someone to ask. A pastor. A mature believer. A good commentary. In more than thirty years of ministry I have never met a Christian who understood the Bible perfectly, and I have never met one who engaged it honestly and came away with nothing.
One Story, and It’s for You
I want to speak directly to anyone reading this who hasn’t yet come to faith in Christ. Maybe you’re exploring. Maybe someone you love became a Christian recently and you’re trying to understand what happened to them.
The book I’ve been describing is, at its core, one story. From the first page to the last it tells of a God who made the world good, watched it break under human sin, and refused to leave it broken. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into that broken world to live the life we could not live, die the death we deserved to die, and rise again to prove that sin and death do not get the last word.
That story is about you. The God who breathed out every word of Scripture knows your name, and He is speaking to you through it. The invitation at the center of it is simple: turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ. That is the starting point. Everything else, including a lifetime of growing in the Word, flows out of that first step.
The story at the center of Scripture, and what God accomplishes in a person who receives it, is developed at length in my book Saved: Understanding God’s Work in Us
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
Pick your start date this week and choose your chapter. Not a plan for the year. Just tomorrow morning, John chapter 1, ten minutes, pen in hand. Then do it again the next day.
And don’t attempt this in isolation. If you don’t have a church where the Bible is opened faithfully every week, make finding one a higher priority than building the perfect reading habit.
Reflection Questions
- Which is the real obstacle for you: not knowing where to begin, or not believing God will actually meet you there?
- What would have to change in your week for ten minutes in Scripture to become genuinely unmissable?
Scripture is how God speaks to you. Prayer is how you answer Him. In the next article we take up the question a lot of new believers are afraid to ask out loud: is prayer really just talking to yourself, or is Someone genuinely on the other end?
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If you missed the beginning of our series “Starting Point” find the article links below:
Article 1: What the Bible Actually Is, and What It Does to You
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where should a new Christian start reading the Bible?
Start with the Gospel of John. It was written so that readers would believe in Jesus Christ and have life in His name (John 20:31), which makes it the natural entry point. After John, many new believers move on to the other Gospels, then to Acts, then to a shorter letter like Philippians or 1 John. Save Leviticus and the prophets for later.
How much of the Bible should I read each day?
Less than you think, and more often than you think. One chapter a day is a strong start, and a single paragraph read slowly is better than five chapters skimmed. Aim for a length you can sustain on your worst week, not your best one. Consistency over a year outperforms intensity over a month every time.
What should I do when I read something I don’t understand?
Write it down and keep reading. Then take the question to someone who can help: a pastor, a mature believer, or a trustworthy commentary. Confusion is not failure. It is the ordinary experience of everyone who reads Scripture seriously, and the questions you write down often become the passages you understand best.
Do I need to read the Bible every day to be a good Christian?
Your standing with God rests on what Christ has done, not on your reading streak. Missing a day doesn’t put your salvation at risk, and no amount of reading earns you anything. But daily Scripture is how God ordinarily feeds and shapes His people, so skipping it costs you something real. Read from gratitude, not from fear.