How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?
I’m going to give you four words (or I guess, three words and a phrase) and I want to see if you can tell me what product is being sold.
Affordable
Accessible
Powerful
Easy-to-use
If you answered electric wheelchair, new computer, or some sort of revolutionary space mop, you’re a great guesser. But, don’t go giving yourself the gold star yet, friend. No no.
No, these are actually the buzzwords used to describe a TV service for which I received a mailed advertisement.
In the same paragraph, this company describes themselves as people who “love” TV.
The letter goes on to boast that they have “40,000+ hours of TV, live & on-demand” and then catalogues the myriad of ways you can access this content. Fear not, friend, they’ve made their service so wildly accessible that you can bow to the throne of entertainment no matter where you are or what time it is.
Oof. Was that landing a little too bumpy? Don’t worry, I was sitting right next to you. We’ll get through this together.
The reality is, our lives today are filled with more idols than ever before. Don’t get too hung up on TV here, it’s just what we’re picking on today. It could be literally anything. Facebook, hanging out with friends, working too much. You name it. If it’s getting in the way of your pursuit of Christ, it’s an idol.
Now, I’m no math genius, but let’s see if we can work through something together here.
Do you know how much content 40,000 hours is? It’s almost inconceivable. Certainly more content than any reasonable person can consume in a reasonable time. Assuming no new content is added, if you were to watch for eight hours a day, it would still take almost 14 years to watch it all. Somehow that’s still a selling point for this business. But let’s look at another angle.
40,000 hours is a little over four and a half years in total. The average person can read about 100 words per minute. So, over the course of 40,000 hours, a person can read on average, about 240,000,000 words. Depending on your preferred translation, the Bible has on average about 750,000 words. So, over the course of 40,000 hours, the average person should be able to finish the Bible 320 times.
I know, I know. I can already hear the rebuttals. “I only watch 2 episodes of my show a day”
That's almost a verbatim quote from yours truly. Remember, we’re working through this together.
But let’s break that down.
I watch 2 episodes per day. Each episode is, let's say, 20 minutes long. So each day I watch about 40 minutes of TV. By the end of the work week, I’ve logged over 3 hours. If we consider only another 2 episodes per day for the weekend (we all know how unlikely that is) then we tack on another hour plus. So over the course of five days, I’ve logged 4 hours and 40 minutes of TV. In a single month, this “paltry” habit has found you 18 hours deep in TV.
But what if you spent “only two episodes” of time reading your Bible? After all, you’ve always wanted to read it all the way through.
Based on our averages above, if you spent those same 18 hours each month reading your Bible, it would take you just a little under 7 months to read the whole thing, cover to cover.
So maybe I talked you out of those extra couple episodes. Want me to really blow your mind?
How easy would it be for you to find another 45 minutes of stuff you could cut out per day? I bet if you look at your social media stats on your phone, you cover that a couple times over.
The more time you can spend with Jesus, in the Word, the stronger your walk will be. If you can find about an hour a day to read your Bible, you can finish the whole thing in about 90 days. That’s reading the Bible about once every three months. Or four times a year. Can you imagine?
It’s not hard to talk to someone and find out that they feel distant from God or don’t feel like they’re hearing anything from Him. The Bible is too often an afterthought.
Want to know why you hear quotes from The Office in your head more than Scripture? It’s because you’ve spent an hour or more watching through the show every day since it stopped. Want to know why you have memes and videos living rent-free in your head instead of the words of Jesus? It’s because you scroll through social media about an hour and a half each day (according to statistics) and spending time with God is hard to make time for.
Is that harsh? Probably. But it’s just as convicting for me as for you, I promise. We’re on this bumpy roller coaster together.
But think about this: How much of a difference do you think you would see in your life if you could read the entire Bible, cover to cover, four times each and every year? And all it takes is an hour a day.
One hour each day that you can trim from any number of fruitless endeavors.
Can you do it?
Looking for a great 90-Day Bible reading plan? Here’s an awesome one from Gospel Adorned. It’s free to download and shows you exactly where to go each day. It doesn’t get any easier than that! Let’s normalize spending more time in God’s Word.
Looking for a Place to Start?
The Word in Habit Journal is based on a simple, inductive approach to studying the Word of God.
What's in the journal?
3 months worth of daily, guided personal Bible study
Praise and Prayer pages to keep you on track
Coil bound so it lays flat or can be held at any angle, in any situation
