Whenever I write or speak about the need for Christians to daily read their Bible, I almost always get some form of pushback. At the heart of most of the pushback I hear is something along the lines of how I’m making Bible reading a duty rather than a delight. I’ll grant that sometimes I don’t always communicate on this topic in the most nuanced way. After these conversations, I’m often left wondering, “Why do we need to qualify and nuance daily Bible reading?” After all, daily Bible reading has had a long tradition in the church’s history, especially in the Reformed tradition since the Protestant Reformation.

Daily Bible Reading: Duty or Delight?

We say, as conservative Bible-believing Christians in the Reformed tradition, that we believe in the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, clarity, and sufficiency of the Word. My question is, “How can we be daily practicing the Word of God if we don’t read it daily?”

At this point, some people may think, “Well, you are aiming in this article to guilt-trip me into daily reading my Bible.” And this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are living in a biblically illiterate culture where even Christians, most surveys demonstrate, don’t even know the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and more. Christians desperately need to be in the Word of God daily. We also face serious challenges to biblical sexuality inside and outside the church from homosexuality, transgenderism, and more. As God’s people, we must ask ourselves, “How will we stand for what the Bible says if we don’t daily read or listen to Scripture?”

And so, don’t get me wrong here daily Bible reading is a delight, not a duty. With that said, it is still essential for a healthy Christian life. When we love someone or something, we spend time with that person or thing. For example, I love my wife, so I spend daily time with her because she’s precious to me. If we believe what I described above about the nature of the Bible and love Jesus, we must ask ourselves, “How can we not spend daily time in the Word?” It is both a delight and a duty to be in the Word of God. God assigns specific promises in His Word to those who are daily in the Word (Psalm 1 is an excellent example of this).

Paul taught Timothy to discipline himself for godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). Bible reading falls within the means of grace, whereby God’s people discipline themselves daily. Such discipline is not carried out of dutiful obligation but out of joyful delight. We delight in God when we find Him precious and infinitely great. The result is a growing desire to know Him more. This perspective should characterize the normal direction of every true Christian’s life and daily experience. Every true Christian should hunger and thirst for righteousness, including daily for the Word of God.

How to View Daily Bible Reading

Daily Bible reading can be done not only with a print Bible. I enjoy listening to the Bible daily for 10–15 minutes on the ESV Bible App. Listening to Scripture often helps me notice things I might miss while reading. It also orients my thinking toward biblical truth first thing in the morning. You might consider reading or listening to the Word for five to ten minutes each day.

I’m not advocating that you begin at an hour or two-hour mark and then run yourself into the ground. As a seasoned Bible reader, I don’t even do that. Instead, I seek to spend quality time perhaps five to ten minutes to start with God’s Word in order to know the Lord better. I cherish the Bible because it contains the central message of redemption centered on the Lord Jesus.

Daily Bible Reading: A Joyful Duty

Daily Bible reading is a joy. When it becomes something we simply check off a spiritual checklist, we will never grow in grace, nor will we discipline ourselves for godliness. At the heart of much of the objection to daily Bible reading is our self-sufficiency. We cannot pave our way to godliness in the Christian life. Instead, God has given us a sure and authoritative Word that illuminates our path in righteousness.

Daily Bible reading is both a delight and a joyful duty. It is a delight to know the Lord of the Word, and it is a duty because we are commanded to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37–40). We read, study, and meditate on Scripture so that the Holy Spirit may convict us and apply the Word to our lives, resulting in growth in God’s grace.

Christian growth in grace is not optional; it is commanded (2 Peter 1:3–15; 3:18). Our growth is grounded in the sure, authoritative, and truthful foundation of God’s Word. While this growth is God’s work, we are still called to spiritual discipline. Daily Bible reading is one of the ordinary means God uses to shape His people. Through His Word, the Holy Spirit helps us delight more in Christ than in ourselves. The Bible is God’s gracious gift to help His people know and serve Him.

Rather than viewing Bible reading as something to cross off a spiritual to-do list, we must understand why God has given us His Word. He has given us sixty-six books thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament, so that we might know Him. Let us spend five to twenty minutes each day reading or listening to Scripture before our day begins. Over time, our thinking, affections, attitudes, behavior, ethics, and worldview will be transformed by the Lord of the Word.

At the heart of why Christians read the Bible is God’s gracious work of replacing hearts of stone with new hearts, new desires, and new affections for Himself. As we read or listen to Scripture daily, we train those new affections to be shaped and disciplined before the Lord.

Final Thoughts

As you read your Bible daily, understand what you are doing. You are sitting under God’s authoritative Word because you believe He speaks to His people through it. Since God is all-satisfying, we read His Word to know Him more deeply and faithfully.

Please pick up your Bible or listen to it on the ESV Bible App and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As you do, you will find your heart and mind increasingly shaped by what is noble, pure, holy, and just. There is nothing better for God’s people than to joyfully delight in God through the daily discipline of reading His Word.

From more from our  latest series please visit: Starting the Year Rooted in Christ