Which Book of the Bible Should New Christians Read First?

Ok, so you're a new believer in Jesus Christ, you've had people telling you to pray and read your Bible regularly, but you have no idea what to do next. The Bible is an overwhelming book, and if you know very little about it, it can be difficult to get started.

The natural tendency is to start at the beginning, because that's the way most books should be read. While reading the Bible cover to cover should happen sometime in your spiritual life, it doesn't need to be your first act as a new Christian. When learning a new way of life, you need to start with the basics.

Lists of genealogies and laws and ancient history, while interesting to scholars and those well-versed in ancient Jewish culture, are sometimes just like reading the manuscripts in their original Hebrew; they make no sense to the newbie. What's worse is that if you get started there and get bogged down how all of this is relevant to you (which it is, you just can't tell yet), you're likely to put the Bible down and not pick it back up for a long time.

So instead of starting back at the beginning of this big book, start off finding the things you need to know. The foundation of everything that we believe as Christians is Jesus, so naturally He would be a good place to start. Jesus didn't write His own story (He was too busy living it), so you will have to settle for someone who saw or heard the things that happened around Jesus. Flip on past the first two-thirds of the Bible and look for the bright red words. Those are the words of Jesus, recorded by others to let people know what happened.

If you're looking at red, you're most likely looking at one of the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John (either that, or some kid scribbled in your Bible with red crayon). Great, you have narrowed your reading of the Bible down to four books...what next?

Out of those books, only one of these men actually walked with Jesus to the point of being called His disciple and apostle. To take it even further, the Bible refers to this disciple as receiving special privileges and being slightly favored as a part of Jesus' inner circle. This man was John.

Looking at the Gospel of John, you will find that John wrote the book for a very specific purpose: that his readers would see Jesus' signs and believe in Him. This makes John the perfect book for a new believer to read to start growing in their walk with Jesus.

John's gospel is one of the most well-written books of the Bible, and John takes time out when something special happens to explain to his readers what it meant. Many authors of the books of the Bible don't take so much care in making sure that they are understood, so letting John explain things to you is a very good idea. Also, over the course of his gospel, John establishes a very good argument as to why we can trust in what Jesus did, and what it means to be "saved."

So read John carefully, then read through the other three gospels, starting with Matthew and ending with Luke. Then jump past John (or read it again...you'll get much more out of it the second time, and the third, and the fourth...) and read Acts, which is about the start of the church. After that, you can head right on through to the end, and then start over at the beginning.

Before long, you'll have a pretty decent handle on what Jesus is all about. Keep going in your Bible study. As you grow and mature in this faith, you will find that every time you read you will learn more and more, and you will grow closer and closer to Jesus Christ.