Obstacle: I Am Not Qualified to Study the Bible
You don’t need an MDiv to study the Bible – here are three practical strategies to change that.
Listen to the conversation above, then read on.
Another common reason people give for not studying the Bible is that they feel they are not fully qualified to study it. If that thought has ever crossed your mind, you are in good company — and this post is for you. Below you will find three practical strategies that address this obstacle directly and give you a concrete place to start.
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Obstacle: I Am Not Qualified to Study the Bible
The Issue
You respect the Bible. You believe it. You try to live by it. But when it comes to actually sitting down and studying it yourself, something holds you back — a quiet sense that serious Bible study is for pastors and seminary graduates, not for ordinary working people. So you leave it to the professionals and show up on Sunday to receive what they have found.
That instinct is understandable, but it is based on a misunderstanding of what the Bible is and who it was written for. The Bible was not written to be decoded by experts and handed down to the rest of us. It was written to be read, wrestled with, and lived out by ordinary people in ordinary households. You are exactly who it was written for.
3 Strategies to Overcome This Obstacle
- Read it like a letter, not a textbook.The books of the New Testament were written as letters to real communities of ordinary people — farmers, tradespeople, merchants, mothers. They were not written for scholars. When you sit down with Romans or Philippians, remind yourself: this was written for someone like me, not about me.
- Try a structured reading plan.One of the reasons people feel unqualified is that they do not know where to start or how to move through the Bible in a way that makes sense. A simple reading plan removes that barrier. The Bible Project’s reading plans (available free at thebibleproject.com) are excellent for building both breadth and confidence.
- Talk about what you read.Understanding deepens through conversation. Find one other person — a friend, a spouse, someone from your small group — and agree to read the same passage each week and talk about it. You do not need to have answers. You just need to be willing to ask questions together. That is Bible study.
Source: Adapted from Hendricks, Howard G., and William D. Hendricks. Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible. Moody Publishers, 2007.