Why Bible Literacy Matters More Than Ever

Not long ago, I had the privilege of preaching as a visiting speaker at a local church. As part of the message, I shared what it was like to grow up as a person of color during the apartheid era in South Africa. It is not something I speak about lightly. But it is part of my story, and part of how God has formed me.

After the service, an older gentleman approached me. What began as a conversation quickly became a challenge. He raised the failures of the post-apartheid government, suggested that people at least had certain amenities under apartheid, and then drew on various Scriptures, often out of context, to make his case about the church’s failure to address present-day problems.

Standing there, I began to sense what he was ultimately implying: that the current challenges in South Africa somehow diminished, or even invalidated, the weight of the apartheid experience I had just testified to.

I walked away unsettled. Not because someone had disagreed with me, disagreement can be part of healthy dialogue, but because something disturbing had taken place. My lived experience had been reframed, debated, and quietly dismissed. And Scripture had been used, but to defend a position.

Moments like these remind me why learning to read Scripture well matters so deeply.

That exchange reminded me, once again, of how urgent biblical literacy truly is. Perhaps especially among those who have walked with Christ for many years.

The Real Danger

The danger is not simply that we don’t read the Bible.

The danger is that we read it without understanding it.

When that happens, we can unintentionally wield Scripture in ways that do not reflect the heart of God: ways that flatten complex realities, dismiss the experiences of others, or assert certainty where wisdom and humility are what the moment requires.

What Biblical Literacy Actually Means

Biblical literacy is far more than knowing verses or being familiar with Bible stories. It is the capacity to read Scripture with genuine understanding, attending to context, genre, and how each passage fits within the larger arc of God’s redeeming work through Christ.

It means coming to the Bible with humility, allowing it to shape our assumptions rather than simply confirming them. True biblical literacy forms our hearts as much as our minds. It trains us to discern God’s voice, to handle His Word with care, and to reflect His character in the way we speak, think, and relate to one another.

How Jesus Read Scripture

Jesus asked far more questions than He gave direct answers. He was not simply delivering information. He was forming people through reflection, engagement, and the discipline of deeper thinking.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently drew people into greater depth through the questions He posed. At times, He asked, “Have you not read…?” (Matthew 12:3), challenging not their access to Scripture, but their understanding of it. At other times, He pressed in personally: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15), calling His followers beyond inherited answers into lived conviction.

But perhaps the most revealing moment is found in Luke 10:25–37, when Jesus was asked what one must do to inherit eternal life. Rather than answering directly, He responded with a question: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

In that moment, Jesus holds together both the authority of Scripture and the weight of interpretation. It is not enough to know what is written; what matters is how we read it. With a single question, He reveals that genuine faith is not passive. It is thoughtful, engaged, and formed through a careful and humble encounter with God’s Word.

Jesus then answers the expert in the law by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. Reading the question alongside the parable reveals something profound. Jesus is not merely testing the man’s scriptural knowledge; He is confronting how that knowledge is, or is not, being lived out.

The issue was never whether the expert knew the command to love his neighbor. The deeper challenge was whether he was willing to expand his understanding of who his neighbor truly is. Through questions and parables together, Jesus stretches biblical literacy beyond the accumulation of knowledge to something far more demanding: a willingness to be genuinely engaged and genuinely transformed by what we encounter in Scripture.

An Invitation to Go Deeper

This season on the Living Loved podcast, we are exploring what it means to be deeply rooted. I understand that for some, the mechanics of biblical interpretation can feel like dry, academic territory. But given the complexity of our world today, and the ease with which Scripture can be misread and misapplied, I want to suggest that biblical literacy is not merely a privilege. It is a responsibility.

So let this be an invitation to slow down and learn to read the Bible well. To ask better questions. To sit with difficulty rather than reach for easy answers. To let God’s Word shape not just what we think, but who we are becoming.

Because when we are deeply rooted in Scripture, we are not easily unsettled by every voice or every competing interpretation. We are anchored in truth. And from that place of rootedness, we begin to reflect the heart of God more clearly, in the way we live, in the way we love, and in the way we lead.

If you want to grow in reading Scripture deeply and confidently, join me this season on the Living Loved podcast.