Not sure how to read the Bible? You’re not alone. Reading the Bible is harder than reading a magazine or novel. It’s harder than listening to a sermon. It’s harder than putting on a cross necklace or copy-pasting a popular verse in your Facebook profile. But it’s worth it.

Why is it hard to read the Bible?

Reading the Bible takes patience. It takes commitment. You’ll be confused. You’ll need to reread. You may need to do some research to understand the context of some stories. This isn’t because you’re not smart enough or good enough – it’s because you’re taking a step thousands of years backwards into a world in which you’re a stranger. Be patient. The people in these stories would be just as bewildered by books, TV, telephones and the Internet.

The Bible has a wealth of fascinating, tricky, problematic stories. It’s more interesting – and more difficult – than church often makes it. But reading the Bible – actually reading it – is the only way to engage with these transformative ideas. You can’t buy Christianity with concerts or jewelry or trinkets plastered with the cross, and you can’t absorb it just by sitting in church.

How should I read the Bible?

Expect reading the Bible to be a challenge, a sacred journey, a struggle. The answers are not easy. Meaningful answers are rarely easy. First, you should focus on your questions. Read critically. Examine the verses, the stories, that make you uncomfortable, or the ones that resonate with you, that remind you of something you’ve experienced.

Read an academic translation, if possible, like the New Revised Standard Version. Start with Genesis, or the Gospels, or any other books that look interesting. You don’t have to read the Bible beginning to end, or in any certain pattern – it’s a collection of books, not a single narrative.

Aren’t doubts bad?

You may have been told that having faith means you shouldn’t think. Here’s what I believe: any belief worth having can stand up to rigorous examination, and any belief worth having is worth exploring.

Doubting is not losing your faith. Doubting is an essential, indispensible step in the journey of figuring out what your faith means. Maybe you’re scared that if you let in the doubts, you will destroy your faith. But the search for knowledge and understanding is holy, and if your faith crumbles so easily, it was never real in the first place.

You might not get much support from your friends or family or church – not all Christian communities encourage critical engagement with holy texts. It’s easier to reduce stories to aphorisms, to read translations that rewrite ambiguous verses, to not read at all but look up pretty verses you can savor. But this is meaningless pretense.

If you have no doubts, you’re stagnant, pretending. Strong beliefs require rigorous, authentic engagement, just like powerful muscles require exercise. If you think you have all the answers, challenge yourself to think more deeply about some interesting issues. For example, some of the most well-known Christian theologians and authors struggled to understand theodicy (If God is all-powerful and all-good, why does evil and pain exist?) and intercessory prayer (Why does God answer some prayers and not others?).

There are no easy answers to these questions, especially not in the Bible, a book of stories and allegories, not decrees and laws. Jesus spoke in parables, metaphors that have complex meanings and many interpretations. Don’t open your Bible expecting a how-to guide, codes you can decode or rules you can follow. Its rich, beautiful mysteries and deeply layered stories are much harder and so much better than that.