Reading the Bible
with a Friend

"He said Yes!"

You’ve finally done it! You’ve talked a friend into reading the Bible with you. Praise the Lord! Now comes the question: How should you read together?  Should you explain every word in every verse? Should you show your friend all the cross-references from Genesis to Revelation on each verse? What if he asks a question and you don’t know the answer?

The first thing to do is to relax. You want your friend to enjoy reading with you, instead of feeling as though you’re pushing something on him. If you decide to meet in your home, do whatever you must to make him feel comfortable and at home. Serve snacks (such as chips) and some coffee, tea, or soft drinks. Sometimes people are afraid they will be captured and sucked into a cult if they attend a Bible study in someone else’s home. If you sense this in your friend, offer to come to his house. Sacrifice some of your time, drive over to his home, and hold the Bible study there. Ask him to determine the time (if your work schedule will allow it) and place, so that he will not feel threatened or frightened. Remember, Jesus ate and drank with sinners, and He was glad to do it. We can visit our unsaved friends without becoming contaminated.

Actually, the key to reading the Bible with a friend is simple:  Ask questions on every verse, questions that anyone can easily answer simply by reading the text. Do not go into lengthy theological discussions about the Greek verb tenses. Your friend needs to be shown that anyone can understand the basics of the Bible message without years of theological education.

In chapter sixteen I have written out numerous questions and ideas on the first few verses of John’s Gospel to get you started. I have not written a complete commentary on the Gospel of John. This section is for those who want to lead their friends into a simple Bible study, without using anything but the Bible itself. I have tried to demonstrate how to ask good questions during a Bible study, questions that will force the participants to think for themselves. Do your best to study the passage beforehand, reading it a number of times, make some notes, and then leaving this book at home. You want to instill in your friends the belief that they can understand the Bible without a theologian or Bible teacher telling them what to believe.

You probably won’t use all of the questions or comments I have written. This study is not meant to be used word for word. It will have served its purpose if you can use it to help your friends think about the Bible text for themselves. As you learn how to ask questions, you will think of your own questions to fit your own friends.

My unsaved friends have raised the following questions and objections during our studies, and I have provided the answers that I gave in an effort to continue discussing the text at hand without getting sidetracked.

What do you do when someone asks a question and expects you to answer it immediately? You simply say, “That’s a good question, and the answer is in the Bible” (maybe Romans or Ephesians). “However, I don’t want to answer that question right now because the answer is not found in our present text. I prefer that you find the answers in the proper context. I don’t want to take one or two verses out of a different context in the Bible to answer your question.”

“Yes, but you’ve read the Bible and know the answers, so I’m asking you.”

“Thank you for that vote of confidence, but I have a question for you. Why should you believe my answer? Maybe I belong to come weird cult. Maybe I really want to win your confidence and then rob you of your money.”

If someone persists, simply say, “If you want a prefabricated belief, in which you don’t need to think for yourself, then go to any local church or cult and tell them that you want to be told what to believe. I’m not going to do that to you. I want you to come to your own conclusions about what you are reading. I never want to hear you say, ‘I reject what Floyd [insert your own name here please, not mine!] says about the Bible.’ Please believe me. What I have to say about the Bible is worthless to you. I might not understand something in the Bible correctly, and it would be a sad mistake for you to rely on me for your chance at eternity. The important thing is that you find out what God really meant when he wrote His book.”

Don’t get sidetracked by having to answer questions that are not answered in the present text. Many people cannot understand the answers anyway until they have read and understood more of the simple things in the Gospels. If you can anticipate their questions, tell them their questions before they ask them. For instance, you might say at the outset, “If the Bible is true, and Jesus is the only way to heaven, what about the heathen in Africa? How does God propose to save them?  \This question is answered very clearly in Romans chapter 1, which we will get to after we have finished John.”

Letting them see that you already know the questions they have will show them that you are a critical thinker and that you are way ahead of them. Don’t, however, give them the answers to their questions. Just tell them where to find the answers in the Bible (if you know; if you don’t, say so) and keep reading John. Tell them that they can read any other books in the Bible if they want.

One man asked me that question about the heathen, and I gave him the aforementioned answer. He got angry and said, “Well, I’ll just read Romans myself this week!” I told him to go ahead. He came back the next week and said, “I read Romans. I didn’t understand it. Let’s keep going in John.”

The following questions and answers should help you avoid subjects that are too advanced for your friend at first.

Question: “Is the Bible reliable? How can you trust the Bible, when it’s so outdated?”

Answer: “That is a very important question, and we will have to answer it at some point in our study. However, how can a person know if any book is trustworthy if he hasn’t first read the book for himself? Let’s finish reading John and then ask that question later.”

Question: “Is Christ the only way to God?”

Answer: “John 14 gives us a direct answer to that question. 

But let’s finish the first thirteen chapters first so we aren’t pulling John 14 out of its context.”

Question: “How are miracles possible?”

Answer: “That’s a good question, but not the right one. The right questions are: ‘Does God exist as a supernatural being?’ If so, is it possible for us finite human beings to understand how God does His miracles? We certainly don’t believe that something is impossible just because we don’t understand it, do we? That would be incredibly arrogant on our part.”

Remember that when they disagree with what the Bible says, you should not defend it nor your view that the Bible is right. The Bible is right regardless of whether they believe it. The Holy Spirit will convict them, and He will defend it much better, through their conscience, than we can. Simply tell them, “I didn’t write the Bible, and it might not be to your liking, but that’s what it says. Whether you choose to accept or reject it is your decision. Our question should not be, ‘Do I agree with it?’ but rather, ‘Is it right?’ It makes no difference if you reject me or my views. Everything – your whole eternity – hangs on whether you accept or reject Jesus and what He says.”

Question: “What about the heathen?”

Answer: Previous answers might suffice, but if your friend is belligerent, you might say jokingly, Wow! I didn’t know you were so missionary–minded! I didn’t know you had such a strong concern for the souls of the heathen. Are you equally concerned about your own soul? I want to know first where I’m going when I die, and then I’ll worry about the heathen.  Maybe you and I are heathens and don’t know it!”

Question: “How can a loving God let the innocent suffer, especially children?”

Answer: “That’s a very good question, but we need to be sure we really want God, and not some theologian, to answer it. I’m sure that we could have an interesting discussion about defining the concept of innocence, but the most complete answer God gives to that question is found in the book of Job in the Old Testament. Job asked the very same question, and God gave him some incredible answers. We’ll even find one of those answers when we get to John 9. Are you sure that you want God’s answer to that question? What if you don’t like His answer?”

Question: “Do I need to be baptized?”

Answer: “John the Baptist and Jesus both have something to say about baptism.”

If someone persists in wanting answers, ask, “Can a ten-year-old child understand university-level physics? Of course not. He hasn’t studied all the prerequisites. If you had to read a physics book for your own employment, would you understand the whole book after one reading? I wouldn’t!”

Some might laugh at this, and you should laugh with them, then continue.

“Please don’t think that the whole Bible is easy to understand with just one reading. God didn’t make it that easy. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but the ones I do have, I didn’t get overnight.

“Your questions are very good. Most people seem to have given up thinking. Your questions show that you haven’t. Excellent! Some of your questions, however, can be answered only after you have grasped the basics of what Jesus is saying in the Gospels. The letters of Paul and Peter and John are all based on knowledge of the Gospels. It’s very difficult to understand some of the answers to our questions when we jump all over the Bible, instead of reading through it systematically, just as we would read a novel.”

I told a philosophy professor once that he could not understand the answer to one of his questions until he had personally met the person who had the answer.

He replied, “You mean, Jesus?”

When I said, yes, he folded his arms and said, “Well, I’m not going to read any further with you until I get the answer.”

We were eating lunch together in a crowded restaurant, and I laughed out loud at his response. I said, “I don’t believe this! If you asked me a question, and I told you that the only person in the world who had the answer lived in China, and that you would have to go and meet him personally to get the answer, would you fold your arms like a little child (I folded my arms as he had done) and tell me that you had to have the answer to the question before you were willing to go meet the only man who had the answer? What kind of philosophical logic is that?”

A number of people had turned to listen to our conversation, and he turned a little red. After a pause, he said, “Read on.”

Tell your friends, “The Bible will answer all of your questions, but not in the first few chapters of John. John does answer some of the important questions in the universe, however. We won’t find a lack of answers if we just tune into God’s questions. Keep reading. I’m still finding answers to my own questions.”

“But you have read the Bible so much!” they might say. “How can you have more questions?”

“I have a wall in my mind. This wall has hundreds of nails stuck into it. Every time I have a question with no answer, I mentally hang the question on one of those nails, and I keep reading and studying.

“Every now and then, I go to the wall and look over the questions. And every time, I discover that some of those questions, through the course of time and study, have been answered. Having questions with no answers does not cause me to give up reading and studying; it motivates me to go on. No student of physics or psychology or any other subject would quit his studies simply because he does not have all of the answers to his questions all at once.”

If your friend has a question, and you do not know the answer, say so! Tell them, “That’s a question that is still hanging on the wall. I don’t have the answer – yet – but I will some day. Let’s keep reading.”

One final point. Don’t push too hard for a decision. Let the Holy Spirit do that. Continually ask the following questions.

•       Do they really understand what sin is?

•       Do they really want to follow the Lord?

•       Do they really want the Lord – just his gifts?

•       Are they really far enough?

Don’t accept their first announcement that they believe. Their first decision might not be a decision to accept the Lord as their Savior but merely a decision to read on, to start thinking more.

May the Lord bless your time together!

Do It!

1.  Pray that your friend will read the Bible with you for at least three months.

2.  Read John’s Gospel every day for your own preparation.

3.  Celebrate privately and thank the Lord that your friend said yes.

SHOP

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