The Value of the Value of Repetition and Repeating Things

There are just a few simple things that have been the most helpful to me in trying to understand Scripture:

• Understanding the basic structure of a passage
• Having a basic understanding of the flow of biblical history (so that I can see where a particular passage "fits" into the overall story)
• Learning to ask good questions of a passage (which I wrote about earlier)
• Summarizing a passage in one coherent sentence
• Reading a passage several times

I want to address the last one - reading a passage several times.

Whenever you choose to spend time in the Word, purpose to read your passage at least three times, and preferably five times. Whether it's a big passage or a small passage, make reading it several times just part of your habit. And certainly, you can't read it too many times. Certainly, reading it one time is the way to get the least out of a passage, short of not reading it at all.

Through this practice, you will see things in the passage on the second, third, or fourth pass that you didn't see the first time. The first time you read something, you're focused more on the new words, phrasing, and more obvious parts of the passage. When you read it a second time, you already know where the passage is going, for the most part, and so your mind will naturally scour for new things, different angles, nuances, repeated ideas, and so on. Every time you read it again, you will pick up something new, or at least become convinced of the main points.

Scripture is a treasure trove! And we get more out of it by reading the passage before us more than one time. Why would we not want to get more out of it? And the time invested is not that much more, and certainly beneficial.

This also works for larger passages. I tried this some time ago for a pretty long passage - the entire book of Romans. I did not stop at any particular point to dig in deeper - I kept right on reading beginning to end, and then again. And as much as I've studied Romans in parts, I still saw new things in Romans I had never seen before, even though I've taught the book section by section. Now, all the parts make even more sense.

In your small groups and Sunday school classes, you might try this on occasion, when appropriate. There are many ways that we read Scripture in a small group, and we often butcher the passage in doing so. We either read too much to digest, we stumble over the words from reading aloud, or we stop at awkward places. How about reading the passage straight through one time, then either reading it again straight through, or just rereading each section as you intend to discuss it?

Another tip that helps: Read the same passage in more than one (good) translation. You get the benefit of repetition, but also the benefit of a few different words to address the same ideas. That broadens our understanding of a passage.

Hmmm ... I don't practice this reading technique in sermons. I'll have to think about how to do this without belaboring the message.