Bible Density

 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable. It is all true and useful and necessary. 

But there are weightier matters of the law. Some verses are more clear than others. Some passages more important than others. Some fit our circumstances more readily than others. 

We perhaps don't remember and take into account as much as we should the variability of Bible Density.

We know the chapter and verse divisions don't always serve us well. 

But we can be rather set on half chapter length chunks. That seems to make a sensible reading for a church service or a quiet time perhaps. But a more varied diet and manner of eating might serve us better. 

The Bible contains many different genres. In some cases, a whole story really needs to be taken together and that might require reading several chapters. And books were designed to serve as a whole as part of the canon so really we always need to think of anything in relation to everything else!

So in our reading and teaching we need slow and fast reading of bigger and smaller chunks. Poems, stories, arguments, proverbs and the rest might call for different approaches and could be best handled in different numbers and at different lengths.  

 Working out what unit to concentrate on may sometimes be a matter of personal choice or teaching strategy or other constraints such as time or reading ability or availability of material. 

But we ought to think about Bible density. Even in the book of Romans, for example, we will find some parts of the argument which are pretty clear and simple. Their contribution to the larger case isn't too hard to see. But sometimes we will need to puzzle over the meaning and logical connection carefully.  And there are some key verses which are really packed with goodness which deserve more than a sermon to themselves. These would be worth slowing down over, memorising, pondering on, chewing upon until they yield all their goodness. We don't want to miss the woods for the trees but sometimes individual plank is worthy of forming your text for the day. 

Happy reading and teaching! But remember to think about Bible Density. Some passages will prove a light meal or even a snack. Some morsels are worth feasting upon.