Tag: Bible

Live Out of Love

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At the start of every school year, Manna Christian Fellowship at Princeton University does a special Old Timers Large Group for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. What follows is the message I shared at this year’s Old Timers on September 3, 2025.

Prayer at “The Cone” sculpture before Manna’s first event of the school year, an ice cream social to welcome freshmen.

As we begin a new school year, here’s what I want you to get:

You are deeply loved by God.

And because you are deeply loved by God, 

love God with your whole being, and love people without exception.

There’s a term in theology and Biblical studies: “synoptic Gospels.” In Manna, we talk a lot about the Gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God. That word, gospel, also refers to the first four books in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four of them give an account of the life and teachings of Jesus. And the Synoptic Gospels refers to three of those books: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The reason they’re called the synoptic Gospels is because they’re quite similar and have a lot of overlap. And John, though he talks about the same Jesus and there’s some overlap as well, his book is very different from the other three. Why are there differences in the accounts of the life of Jesus? If you had four different people telling you about the life of [pick random student], you’d hear four different accounts, different details and emphases, different ways of describing the same person. All true, but just from different perspectives. For example, Daniel and I get asked so many times how he proposed. I tell that story very differently from the way Daniel tells it. Which telling is right or more true? They’re both right, and they’re both true. And hearing it from both our perspectives gives you a fuller picture.

So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to explore a story that’s found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. And then, we’ll see what John, the author of the last Gospel, has to say about the matter. And as we explore, I want you to consider two questions:

  1. Do I live like love is as important as Jesus said it was? 
  2. What gets in my way of loving God and loving people?

The Perspective of Matthew

If you have your Bible, open up to Matthew 22. While you do that, let me give you some context. In the preceding chapter, chapter 21, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and there were palm branches, and people were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” It was basically a royal procession. And after that, Jesus went into the temple, and He started flipping over the tables of the money changers and those selling doves. This was happening in the Court of the Gentiles, the place that was supposed to be where those from every nation could come and worship God, but that place was being overrun by people who were distorting sacrifice and worship into a commercial endeavor, thereby excluding the nations to whom God had called His people to be a blessing. Jesus flipped the tables of injustice, and the religious leaders got mad and began to search for a way to do away with Him. So in chapter 22, we see various groups approaching Jesus, trying to trap Him with different theological tests/questions. In Matthew 22:34, we come to their last test to Jesus.

Matthew 22:34-40 (CSB)

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.  And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

After this, Jesus turned around and presented them with a question and they weren’t able to answer Him. Then in Matthew 23:1-4, the story continues. 

Matthew 23:1-4 (CSB)

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach. They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.

Jesus calls us to a love that is embodied and seen through action rather than being enslaved to legalism, perfectionism, purity tests, and the appearance of piety. 

The Perspective of Mark

Let’s look at Mark 12. The context here is the same as the book of Matthew: Jesus flipping over tables of injustice, the religious leaders trying to trap Him. But when we get to Mark 12:28, the tone shifts. 

Mark 12:28-34 (CSB)

One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.

What strikes me about Mark’s telling is that the scribe seemed genuinely interested. And Jesus’ positive response to him makes me wonder what happened to this scribe. Did he ever become a follower of Jesus? We don’t know. All we know is that in this moment, as he demonstrated an understanding of the supremacy of love, Jesus said he was “not far from the kingdom of God.” 

As we keep reading a few verses later, starting in verse 38,

Mark 12:38-44 (CSB)

He also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who want greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”

Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. Then a poor widow [Remember that Jesus just talked about scribes devouring widows’ houses.] came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had — all she had to live on.”

So many people preach this passage to say, you need to be like the poor widow and sacrifice everything you have for God. But read in context, this is not that. Nowhere does Jesus say that what this widow was doing was a good thing. He wasn’t criticizing her, but His words weren’t exactly praise either. It was more like lament. He was saying, “Here is a living example of the way scribes and religious leaders are devouring widow’s houses and causing them to be destitute. Look at the inequity of someone who has very little giving everything, while people who have everything give comparatively very little.” This year, our theme in large group is going to be “Jubilee.” You can read about the idea of Jubilee in Leviticus 25 and Luke 4:16-21. But for now what I want you to know is what was happening in this passage, what the religious leaders and rich people were doing and allowing to happen to widows was not jubilee and was antithetical to the Gospel. 

The scribe understood and could wax eloquently about the command to love God and love people, but there was a disconnect between the knowledge the scribes had and how they lived their lives. The scribes were pious and they prayed long prayers, but they were also greedy and unjust. Love does not tolerate injustice. 

The Perspective of Luke

Luke puts this story earlier in the narrative and in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus wouldn’t flip the tables of injustice until chapter 19. If you glance at the subject titles leading up to this point, you’ll see things related to Jesus’ identity and His mission, as well as His invitation to His followers to be like Him and participate in that mission (“Peter’s Confession of the Messiah,” “His Death and Resurrection Predicted,” “Take Up Your Cross,” “The Power of Jesus over a Demon,” “Sending Out the Seventy-Two…”). With that setup in mind, let’s read Luke 10:25-37.

Luke 10:25-37 (CSB)

Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

“You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

This expert in the law was basically asking Jesus, “Who do I have to include and who am I allowed to exclude?” And Jesus’ response was scandalous. “You think you’re an expert in the law? Let me tell you a parable about how the kind of people that you look down on understand the law better than you.”

Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite [another religious leader], when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

Through the story of the Good Samaritan, we see a love that’s not abstract, but concrete:

What does concrete love look like? Three phrases:

  1. I see you.
  2. I’m here for you.
  3. I’ve got your back. 
  • The Samaritan didn’t just see that the man was there. The religious leaders saw him, too. But they didn’t see him in his full humanity, as someone created in the image of God and loved by God, who was suffering and in need of care. But the Samaritan truly saw him and was compassionate enough to stop.
  • He bandaged his wounds (which means he was willing to look at some ugliness)
  • He gave his resources: oil, wine, money. And where did he get bandages? Did he rip up his own clothes or another one of his valuables to make bandages for this stranger?
  • He gave his time, not just in that moment, but in the days to come.
  • And the Samaritan made sure the man was safe and out of harm’s way.

“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

Here’s the beautiful thing: Jesus wasn’t like the religious leaders who didn’t practice what they taught. In Jesus’ life—His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, through His teachings, and presence, and miracles, and in the ways that He advocated for the marginalized and cared for the broken—He communicated over and over again: “I see you, I’m here for you, and I’ve got your back.” And He is still speaking and living those words for us today. That is love.

The Perspective of John

Throughout the Gospel of John, there’s so much talk of love. John 3:16—“For God so loved the world…”.John 15—”Remain in my love…” Rather than going to the Gospel of John, I’m going to have us go to one of his letters at the end of the Bible. 

1 John 4:7-11, 18-21 (CSB) 

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.  

There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

You are deeply loved by God. And because you are deeply loved by God, love God with your whole being, and love people without exception.

Now here’s the thing: Love is not some fluffy, light, easy thing. Love is messy. It takes work, laying down our pride, sacrifice, and vulnerability. Love is brave. And Jesus didn’t just tell us to love our friends and the people in our community. He also told us to love our enemies. And He told a story about how the people we look down on or despise may be the ones who need to teach us how to love.

Love is hard. And we mess up. We fail to love God. And we fail to love people well. So what do we do? 

Let’s look at one more passage written by John, except this time in the wonderfully weird book of Revelation. Revelation 2:1-5. This book is a series of visions that John had. And in this passage, he’s told to write letters to various churches. 

Revelation 2:1-5 (CSB)

“Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.  

In the IVP Bible Background Commentary, Dr Craig Keener wrote, “Sound doctrine and perseverance are inadequate without love.” 

So back to the question: What do we do? What do we do when we’re not loving God or living out of that love?

John goes on:

Revelation 2:5 (CSB)

Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. 

Jesus doesn’t say, “The moment you fail to love well, that’s it. I’m done with you.” No. He says, to repent (to turn back to Him), and to do the works you did at first (to be with Him, not just to ask Him for things, but to be with Him), and keep coming back to Him and to His love. Now just to be clear: in saying “do the works you did at first,” this does not mean you need to do works to earn God’s love. You cannot earn God’s love; God loves you. Period. So why talk about doing works? Because it takes work to cultivate our love for God and for others. And, like we saw in the Gospels, love is not some abstraction. It is concrete, made visible through action. So every day, keep returning to Jesus and keep doing the things that cultivate your love for Him and others

So here’s what I want you to carry with you as you start this new school year and for the rest of your life:

You are deeply loved by God. And because you are deeply loved by God, love God with your whole being, and love people without exception.

Let everything you do and everything you strive to be flow out of that love.

When Following Jesus Requires Questioning

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I went out for sushi with a friend. She’s the kind of friend I love talking with and who always leaves me feeling encouraged. During this particular conversation, I noticed something interesting:

Whenever she’d say, “I know I should…,” what followed would sound spiritual and “Christian”—like things I grew up hearing at church. But strangely, it wouldn’t sound like anything I’ve read about Jesus’ life in the Gospels. And when she’d apologetically say, “But I decided to…,” I’d be reminded of passages throughout Scripture and I’d see parallels between her life choices and the life Jesus modeled for us.

My friend is following Jesus. And in order to do that, she has to reject the patterns of this world—including ways the Church has adopted and spiritualized these patterns.

Isn’t that weird? At least, shouldn’t it be? And shouldn’t this be cause for alarm?

We’re followers / disciples / apprentices of Jesus. Whatever terminology you like to use, we’re to strive to look more and more like Him. But sometimes we confuse the way of Jesus with church culture. Church culture doesn’t always look and sound like Jesus. In fact, sometimes it’s conforming to church culture that prevents us from becoming more like Jesus. (What a brilliant way for the enemy to keep the Church from actually living like the Body of Christ! “Make it sound spiritual and put Jesus’ name on it, then they’ll accept it without question!”)

I want my heart to be aligned with Jesus’ heart, to look and sound like Him, to reflect Him every way I can. Unfortunately, that means there are times when I must make choices that go against the culture of the Church (or at least the American Church). And that means people who know church culture better than actual Jesus will accuse me of things that sound a lot like the things Jesus was accused of.

• What if we accepted Jesus’ invitation to learn from Him, diving deep into Scripture with humility in the fact that we don’t always get everything right and we still have more to learn?

• What if we investigated whether or not each supposed truth we label “biblical” is actually in the Bible and in alignment with the heart of God?

• What if we chose to follow Jesus—actually follow the words He spoke and the way He lived as it’s revealed in Scripture rather than what some people or our church culture tells us is “biblical”?

So here’s my challenge to you: The next time you find yourself thinking, “I feel like as a Christian I should…,” ask these two questions:

1. Does this thing I feel I should believe/think/do/be resemble what Jesus lived and taught? (If you can’t find it in Jesus’ life and teachings or anywhere else in Scripture, that’s a big red flag. So be specific. Where is it in Scripture? And if you find a verse, zoom out and look at the context of the chapter, book, and whole of Scripture. Is that really what that passage is saying? Or has it been misunderstood or taken out of context?)

2. What is the Spirit saying to me? Could it be that what the Spirit is saying to me contradicts something I’ve been taught but is actually in alignment with the way of Jesus as revealed in Scripture?

One more thing: Live this out in community. Find people who will ask these questions with you, lovingly call you out when you don’t live them, and aggressively encourage you when you do.

Prophesying (And What the Bible Actually Says about Prophecy)

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Each year I pray for God to give me a word. A word to internalize, grow into, and live out. A word that can bring me focus as I navigate the challenges the year will bring. What was the word God gave me for 2020? Prophesy.

Seriously, God? It seemed too weird. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I saw a lot of false prophets and predictions. (Anyone remember all the prophesies about how the world would end and Jesus would come back at Y2K?) Even though I believe some prophets and prophecies are real and biblical, I’ve seen enough falsehood, abuses of Scripture, and weirdness to have a skeptical view of people who proclaim themselves to be prophets or to have “a word from the Lord.” And let’s not forget the fact that the Bible has some harsh words for false prophets!

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods — that prophet must die.’ You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”

Deuteronomy 18:20-22

Suffice it to say, when I sensed God speaking the word “prophesy” to me, I said, “Thanks, God, but no thanks! Can you give me a different word? One that isn’t so weird or scary?”

God didn’t answer this last request. He didn’t need to; He knew what I would need. More than that, He knew how this year would unfold and that the people in my sphere of influence would need a prophetic voice. So He continued to whisper the same word in my heart again and again. And He pointed me to a passage of Scripture that felt like fire every time I came across it. Sermons, books, wherever I looked—it felt like I couldn’t get away from it!

“Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. For the person who speaks in a tongue is not speaking to people but to God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation. The person who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. I wish all of you spoke in tongues, but even more that you prophesied. The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be built up.”

1 Corinthians 14:1-5

“Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.”

In my resisting, God was relentless. (That’s one of the ways I know I’m not just making stuff up and God’s really speaking to me.) I came to a point where I couldn’t shake His voice—I didn’t want to—and I gave in. My giving in to God was part reluctance, but bigger part expectation that God knew what He was doing and had something in store.

Prophesy. Not “prophet.” Not “prophecy.” The word He gave me was a verb, an action word. And shortly after I gave in to God, March 2020 happened. The world was reeling from a global pandemic and America went into lockdown. And in the following months, America began to reel even more as racial injustice was recorded for all to see and people cried out in the streets. All of this and so much more in a crazy election year. And in the midst of everything, God didn’t want me to be a passive observer; He wanted me to do something.

You may be thinking, “If God gave you the word “prophesy” for the year of 2020, shouldn’t you have seen everything coming?” When you read the prophetic books in the Bible, you find that even though part of their message included predicting future events, the bulk of their messages consisted of critique and hope.

Did I see the crazy before it all happened? Not quite. But at every turn this year, I’ve felt ready. Not just ready to go through each challenge with a peace and purpose, but also ready to care for and appropriately speak into the lives of the people God has called me to love and lead.

“The Lord God has given me

the tongue of those who are instructed

to know how to sustain the weary with a word.

He awakens me each morning;

he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.”

Isaiah 50:4

In June of this year (the month when racial injustice was brought into the light and couldn’t be ignored any longer), I was reading the book of Jeremiah. That was a difficult month for me. I was heartbroken and angry about all of the injustice. I felt disillusioned as a large number of Christians (including leaders) said things that completely contradicted what I was reading in the Bible. And then I’d see other Christians who had the courage to speak up, only to get torn down by their Christian brothers and sisters. And each day as I continued to wade through the long book of Jeremiah, I found myself feeling more disillusioned—not by God, but by people who violated His word in His name. And all I could do was lament.

Looking through the lens of the word “prophesy”—along with diligent study of what the Bible has to say and taking the time to hear God’s voice on the matter—has given me a unique perspective of this year. At times, it has allowed me to see with expectation (even excitement) during times when many have felt anxious and afraid. At other times, it has caused me to have caution when some have declared, “Everything’s looking up now!” And when there has been a rise of people declaring to have had prophecies or dreams of what is to come, I’m finding it easier to discern when it’s time to listen, when something needs to be put on a shelf for later, or when something needs to be corrected or discarded. Most importantly, in the midst of a difficult year, it has helped me to hold the tension of both lament and hope.

What follows are passages from the Bible that talk about prophets and prophesying. This isn’t exhaustive by any means. These are simply some of the passages that have stuck out to me this year as I’ve explored what it means (and what it doesn’t mean) to prophesy.

The entire book of Jeremiah is a great starting point. It’s like a narrative textbook on what it means to be a prophet. There’s way too much gold in this book to put in a single blog post, so I’ll just share some highlights.

The life of the prophet isn’t easy. These words from God to Jeremiah give insight into one of the challenges that comes with being a prophet:

“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. Therefore, declare to them…”

Jeremiah 7:27-28a

The words God gave Jeremiah to preach weren’t easy for people to digest. (He foretold of invasion and exile and preached a message of repentance from idolatry, oppression, and injustice.) On the other hand, Judah’s leaders were saying things that seemed more optimistic or faith-filled. But the words of these leaders didn’t come from God and weren’t rooted in the truth.

“They have treated the brokenness

of my dear people superficially,

claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.”

Jeremiah 8:11

And notice what God said about people who were falsely “prophesying” in Jeremiah’s day:

“This is what the Lord of Armies says: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth. They keep on saying to those who despise me, “The Lord has spoken: You will have peace.” They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, “No harm will come to you.”

For who has stood in the council of the Lord

to see and hear his word?

Who has paid attention to his word and obeyed?’”

Jeremiah 23:16-18

God goes on to say what the effect a true prophet, someone who has stood in the council of the Lord, would have on people:

“If they had really stood in my council,

they would have enabled my people to her my words

and would have turned them from their evil ways

and their evil deeds.”

Jeremiah 23:22

Moving beyond the book of Jeremiah…For all those who think they have a prophecy from God because, like Michael Scott, they declared it:

“Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

2 Peter 1:20-21

Jesus warned his followers about false prophets and told them how they could recognize them:

“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit.  Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.“

Matthew 7:15-20

You’ll recognize them by their fruit. There are a lot of places in the Bible that talk about fruit. The most famous of these passages is in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. When it comes to prophets, pay attention to the fruit:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Galatians 5:22-23

Earlier I quoted 1 Corinthians 14:1 where Paul wrote, “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.” God gives some people the gift of prophecy to build up the Church. But we shouldn’t be naive and listen to everyone who claims to be a prophet with a “word from the Lord.” So what should we do when someone has a message?

“Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good.“

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21

Test all things—every prophecy—and take note: Does this line up with the heart of Scripture? What kind of fruit do I observe? If it includes a prediction, did it come true? And when you test all things, hold on to what is good. Speaking of holding on to what is good, as Paul writes to Timothy, a young minister he mentored, he gave a glimpse of the good that prophecies hold:

“Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight…”

1 Timothy 1:18

One last thing…

If you feel like God is asking you to prophesy, first pray for God to give you discernment so you can know the difference between His voice and your own. (Double check to make sure that word that’s burning in your heart actually came from Him.) And then, if you still feel God has given you a prophetic word to share, courageously obey His voice. And as you prophesy, trust God to deal with the hearts of others while paying attention to the fruit that flows from your own.

My Favorite Bible Study Tools

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There are SO MANY Bible study tools available. And among them are a lot of great resources as well as a lot of…um…not so great ones. So if you don’t know what you’re looking for (or maybe even if you do), navigating the sea of accessible Bible study tools can be overwhelming. So I thought I’d let you see some of my go-tos. Please note that even though I tried to keep this list short and simple, it can still seem like a lot if you’re just getting started. So after getting a Bible, if you want to start with just one thing, skip to the very end!

My Go-To Bibles:

First things first. The most important tool when you’re studying the Bible is…a Bible.

She Reads Truth Bible – There are a lot of Bibles in my home in a vast array of translations, languages, and editions. But when I’m sitting down to spend time with Jesus, this is the first one I grab. It has helpful resources in it (devotionals, charts, timelines, etc.) but not so much that I get bogged down in overthinking mode. In other words, it has a clean design and doesn’t look like a textbook. It also has wide margins, so it’s a great journaling Bible. (Random fun fact: one of the devotional writers is Jill McDaniel. Who’s Jill McDaniel? She goes to my church and she’s my friend. Also, she’s awesome.)

He Reads Truth Bible – I love my SRT Bible so much that I bought my husband the HRT Bible when it came out. Unlike the SRT Bible, the HRT Bible doesn’t have any devotionals in it. BUT, it does contain more resources (charts and such) that they developed after making the She Reads Truth Bible. Because of that, it’s not uncommon for me to borrow my husband’s Bible.

ESV Study Bible – This is pretty much the gold standard of study Bibles! It’s what I go to when I want to get into the nitty gritty. Its pages contain a wealth of diagrams, charts, notes, and a whole lot more. (Something to keep in consideration is that many of the notes in this study Bible are written from a more Reformed perspective. If that’s a turnoff for you, I list another great study Bible below.)

Digital Bibles:

Bible.com – This is a free digital Bible website and app. I mostly use this when I’m on the go or when I’m looking up passages in multiple versions. (I also link to Bible.com whenever I quote passages in my blog. 😉 ) The She Reads Truth app and He Reads Truth app are also great digital Bible options.

Since words—especially words in the Bible—don’t always mean what we think they mean, here are a couple websites where you can click/tap on a word in a passage and find out what it means: NetBible.org and BibleWebApp.com.

Bible Background Resources:

Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible – I didn’t list this under the “My Go-To Bibles” category because I only have this Bible in Kindle format, so I mostly use it for the articles. If you don’t already have a study Bible, I highly recommend this one! (I link the NIV below, but it also comes in NKJV and NRSV.)

To be honest, I don’t use the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible as much because the following two books are my go-to for historical and cultural background deep dives.

John Walton and Craig Keener, the writers for the notes in the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, are the same people who wrote these commentaries. When I read these commentaries, I often find myself exclaiming out loud, “What?! This passage makes so much more sense now!”

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament

A note about commentaries for Biblical studies and ministerial students: I use a lot more commentaries than what I list here. I’m not going to list any of them here, because the point of this post is to give people who are beginning to study the Bible a starting point. Which commentaries are best? It depends on which book of the Bible you’re studying and what you’re looking for in a commentary. So when you’re picking commentaries, do your research and use more than one source when you can (libraries can help!).

If I Had to Pick Just One to Get Started:

BibleProject.com – From the BibleProject website: “BibleProject is a nonprofit animation studio that produces short-form, fully animated Bible videos and other Bible resources to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere. We create 100% free Bible videos, podcasts, and Bible resources to help people experience the story of the Bible.”

I love BibleProject so much that I got their ginormous coffee table book that has all the diagrams and summaries from the videos for each book of the Bible.

Honestly, I could spend hours just sitting and watching BibleProject videos. They have so much to explore! But when it comes to my regular Bible study, what do I do with these BibleProject resources? Before I begin reading a book of the Bible, I like to watch the corresponding video that “outlines its structure and design and how it fits into the entire biblical story.” And then I like to keep the coffee table book open close by so that if I feel like I’ve lost where I am in the larger story—especially when I’m reading a particularly lengthy book—I can glance up and get my bearings.

Okay, so I told you some of my go-tos. What are some of yours?