Episode Details

Is It A Sin to Write in Your Bible? : Bible Study 101

Before the color method starts, there's a hurdle a lot of us have to get over first. Rachael is about to ask you to take a highlighter to your Bible, and for some of you that feels close to sin. This episode deals with that honestly, walks through what Deuteronomy 6 actually tells God's people to do with His words, and explains why physically marking a page changes what your brain is able to take in. There's also a practical setup list for the week ahead, and none of it requires spending money.

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Chapters

0:00 Where the color method came from

1:23 Bracing you for it: I'm going to ask you to write in your Bible

2:48 Where the hesitation comes from

4:11 The misprinted Bible Rachael pulled out of the trash

6:23 The pastors who split one Bible into 66 sections

7:49 The words are holy, the paper is not

8:47 The family cookbook and the cookbook that stays on the shelf

11:38 Deuteronomy 6 and the Shema

12:59 Hearts, hands, foreheads, doorframes

13:55 What those little boxes actually are

15:15 The case on the doorframe

16:13 What Jesus was actually criticizing in Matthew 23

17:30 Shanan, the word that means to sharpen

19:08 Why marking breaks your brain's habit of skimming

21:00 The reading problem nobody talks about in church

23:23 Permission to start with a children's Bible

27:36 Can I just use the app on my phone?

29:36 What you actually need to get

32:45 The one Bible you shouldn't write in

33:51 How this week is going to work

38:11 Prayer

Is it a sin to write in your Bible?

No. And the hesitation you feel about it comes from a healthy place, so Rachael isn't dismissing it. Reverence for God's word is a good instinct.

But the distinction worth making is this: the words are holy, the paper is not. The Bible on your shelf came off a printing press, and there are thousands of identical copies of that exact edition. If yours were destroyed tomorrow you could order another one and God's word would be completely intact. What you honor is the words themselves, and you honor them by knowing them.

Rachael's picture for this is a family cookbook. Hers is stained, falling apart at the spine, full of notes in the margins, and she has nearly every recipe in it memorized. She also owns a beautiful cookbook with gold edging that she's never once used and couldn't name a recipe from. One of those books is loved. The other one is preserved.

What does Deuteronomy 6 say about God's word?

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is called the Shema, named for its first word in Hebrew, which means hear. It's what an observant Jewish person says when they get up and when they lie down, and it's what Jesus quoted when someone asked Him which command was greatest.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Verse 6 is internal. His words go on your heart. No argument there. But every