Memorize the Bible

In this very first post on this new website, we start with chapter 3, verse 16, from John’s Gospel, arguably the most famous verse in the Bible:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (NASB95)

Not only is this verse arguably the most famous verse in the Bible, it is arguably the best single-verse summary of the entire Bible message. So it simplifies the Bible and doesn’t tell every detail, but as a summary it is great.

So let’s learn the whole Bible then!

But it’s big book, and while we might be able to memorize John 3:16 and a few other verses, the idea or memorizing the Bible seems like a task that is beyond daunting.

The 66-book Bible has just under 1,200 chapters, and just over 31,000 verses.

Somewhere about 2011, I decided to change the way I did my daily Bible reading, and that has since grown into what I think of as a system that has helped me “effectively” though not “actually” memorize the Bible, and I want to use this website to share that system with others.

So I start by noting that John 3:16 isn’t the only famous “chapter 3, verse 16” in the Bible that is relevant to what I want this website to become.

I start with it though to keep things in perspective.

John 3:16 speaks about how God has initiated His plan of salvation — it’s something that we can participate in by responding to Him, but it’s not something that we design or even deserve. In a simplified form, it means believing in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. To do that, there must be some basic level of understanding about what that means, and the belief has to be earnest enough that it’s not merely words — true belief is evidenced by living our lives in a godly way.

Another famous “chapter 3, verse 16” is in Paul’s Second Epistle to Timothy. Quoting both it and the following verse, we read:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (NASB95)

For the moment, I want to focus on the first word — “all”.

“All” Scripture is inspired and profitable, but for most Christians, the mere size and scope of the Bible’s words means that most of us really aren’t all that familiar with large parts of the Bible. This website aims to change that.

Another famous 3:16 is in Peter’s Second Epistle, and this time to get the context even in a simplified form I quote both it and the two verses just before it:

“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (NASB95)

Sometimes the Scriptures are “hard to understand”, and sometimes people do “distort” the truth of the Scriptural message “to their own destruction.”

While there are many components to living a godly life in Christ, the aim of this website is to equip all people with as much basic Bible knowledge as possible so that they can see the truth of what God has called us to.

Knowledge is not an end in itself — but true and accurate and reasonably complete knowledge about God as He has revealed himself through the Scriptures does have its place and is important and so that is the focus of this website.

Two more and then I’m done with this initial post.

In Colossians 3:16, the Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Again keeping this simple rather than trying to tease out every nuance of what he had in mind, at a basic level what the Apostle Paul was encouraging here was the use of songs as a memory aid for learning the Scriptures and it’s ideas. Come to think of it, for many of us who can’t seem to memorize Scripture, doesn’t putting it into a memorable tune help you remember the Scriptures even if imperfectly word-for-word?

And it doesn’t have to be a song that jogs the memory. Sometimes it just takes a little something to jog the memory, and then even if you can’t recite some Scriptural passage word-for-word, you can at least share the basic outline.

Try it now if you want. Just to yourself, can you tell the basic story of David versus Goliath? You don’t have to know that it is in 1 Samuel chapter 17 and you don’t have to remember every last detail. But can you tell yourself the outline of the story?

How about a well-known parable of Jesus? Maybe the parable of the sower, or the parable of the sheep and the goats? Or the parable of the prodigal son? When you’re done, feel free to look up Matthew 13, Matthew 25, or Luke 15 respectively, and then try again. Will you do better on the second try? What if you try to tell yourself the parable from memory every day for a week?

At some level, that’s the main idea behind this website. It’s about encouraging you to remember just enough to then recollect the basics of every part of the Bible, so that instead of knowing just a few well-known scriptures, you have a decent understanding of the whole inspired book that is profitable for … (can you finish the rest of 2 Timothy 3:16 from memory right now?).

Finally, to complete our simple tour of some relevant “chapter 3, verse 16” quotes, we consider Proverbs 3:16 in context. Including the verse numbers this time for ease of reference:

Proverbs 3:13–26 (NASB95)

¹³How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding.

¹⁴For her profit is better than the profit of silver And her gain better than fine gold.

¹⁵She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor.

¹⁷Her ways are pleasant ways And all her paths are peace.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who hold her fast.

¹⁹The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.

²⁰By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.

²¹My son, let them not vanish from your sight; Keep sound wisdom and discretion,

²²So they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.

²³Then you will walk in your way securely And your foot will not stumble.

²⁴When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Do not be afraid of sudden fear Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;

²⁶For the Lord will be your confidence And will keep your foot from being caught.

God has passed on wisdom to this world through His written word, and we are blessed if we seek that wisdom. We don’t have to remember every word verbatim, but by seeking to have what I call a “good working knowledge” of every chapter in the Bible using some simple methods, we can acquire the kind of God-given wisdom that blesses us and others and that honors God the Author.

May this website be a blessing to all who use it, and by God’s grace may we both be gifted eternal life.