How can I read the Bible when I don’t understand it?

An Ethiopian official in Acts 8 is reading Isaiah and admits, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” (Acts 8:31). Nobody in Scripture is embarrassed by that sentence. Understanding usually comes through company, not willpower.

So read with help. Pick one Gospel — Mark is the shortest — and read a few paragraphs a day rather than a chapter you will not absorb. Use a modern translation. Read a short intro to the book you are in, or listen to it while you commute.

Three questions are enough for most days: What does this say about God? What does it say about people? What would it look like to trust this today? Write one line. That is a real study.

And do not read only the parts that make sense. Bring the confusing bits to someone — a pastor, a mature friend, a study group. “I don’t get this” is a good sentence to say out loud, and it is often the beginning of actually getting it.

Look it up

Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

Acts 8:30

That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:17