One of the most useful tools you can invest in to help you get to grips with a Bible passage is a packet of coloured pencils.
I first came across this approach as a teenager, in the book So You’re a Teenage Girl. It was first published in the US in 1966, and even by the time I read it it was a bit dated, as the reviews on Good Reads reflect. But it had a chapter introducing the idea of highlighting things in the Bible as you read.
As far as I remember, it had half-a-dozen or more things to look for, and the key in the back of my Bible tells me that after a while I found that I wanted to look for different things, or use different colours, but the idea stuck.
Fast-forward a few decades and I wanted to find a way to help myself properly pay attention in my daily Bible reading. Too often I would read a passage, close the Bible, then think, “I haven’t the faintest clue what that said.”
I was also finding it boring to read passages that were very familiar, like parables, or well-known stories from the Old Testament. “Yep,” I’d think, “I know what this says, and what it means. Let’s move on.” Then I’d hear a sermon or read an article in which someone pulled out an amazing, profound meaning from what I had skimmed over as dull and obvious.
So I decided to add colour.
Simple but effective
I kept it simple at first. I got a green pencil, a red pencil and a purple pencil. With the green I underlined any positive commands or instructions – “Love the Lord your God…”, “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God” etc. With the red I underlined any warnings or negative commands, such as “Do not be anxious about anything”, “You shall not murder” etc. And with the purple I underlined anything we learn about God – his character, his attributes etc (because purple is the colour of royalty): “…the compassionate and gracious God…”, “I am the good shepherd”, “God loves a cheerful giver.”
That immediately made me pay much more attention to what I was reading, and thus get much more out of it.
Pretty soon I needed to add another colour, as I found I was coming across promises/assurances – “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you”, “Behold, I am with you always”. I used blue for that.
Before long, whole books of the Bible were coloured with a clear, simple code, enabling me to see at a glance the balance of things to do, things not to do, assurances and revelations about God.
If you’re looking for a way to engage more deeply with your own devotional reading, I highly recommend it. These colours can help us see how to praise God in response to the passage, what things we may need to repent of, and any things we need to start doing.
Take it further
If you’re studying a passage in more depth, look for repeated words and phrases, and start to circle or highlight those in other colours. For this, you may not want to use your Bible, but to print out the passage (with plenty of space around for making other notes), or use a journalling Bible. I like this series from Crossway – paperback journals with one-to-three books of the Bible (depending on length) in each. They have the text (in the ESV translation) on the left-hand page, with a blank (very faintly dotted) page opposite, giving you plenty of room for notes, or more creative responses to the text. (And they have beautiful, gold-embossed covers and a few ‘illuminated’ pages.)
This week’s attachment is the text of the prologue to John’s Gospel, with some ideas of some repeated words to underline. Have a go, and see what you can find. If you haven’t got any coloured pencils, I recommend buying a set of at least 12. I use this set of 24, from Ryman, and they give a lovely line and colour.
I’d love to hear how you get on, if you try either approach.
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