Inquisitiveness – Why Your Bible Reading Demands It

Approximate Reading Time: 11 minutes

(Click here for the podcast version of this article)

For many Christians, Bible reading is difficult because we don’t always understand what we’re reading. Sentences can be worded strangely, writers may refer to something we don’t understand, or we may just find ourselves in the middle of reading and realize we have no idea what’s been said.

When we want to improve our Bible reading, there’s no shortage of good advice and methods for us to follow. People can spend years trying to read from the right kind of Bible, finding the ideal reading plan, collecting the best materials, or figuring out the right time of day to read. I’ve even created a number of articles and podcast episodes aimed at helping Christians who struggle with their Bible reading (check out the Bible Reading section here).

However, those things aren’t magic fixes. They’re helpful, but they can’t make God’s word meaningful to us on their own.

If a Christian wants to improve their understanding of God’s word so that it can impact their lives even more, there’s one trait they must intentionally grow. It’s not something that may come naturally to everyone, but it’s absolutely something everyone is capable of.

If you want to understand God’s word, you must be inquisitive.

What is inquisitiveness?

Those who are familiar with the word may ask “Why not just say curious instead of inquisitive?” While the words are similar, there’s something a curious person lacks:

A curious person will read something in the Bible and say “I wonder what that means” and keep reading
An inquisitive person will read something in the Bible, wonder what it means, and then try to find out what it means

When we’re inquisitive, we ask questions. We look at something we don’t understand and desire to investigate so that we can understand it better. We won’t just be satisfied to recognize that we don’t understand something. Instead, we’ll realize that there is an answer and desire to find out what that answer is.

Why does inquisitiveness matter?

Inquisitiveness is a necessary part of learning. Whether it’s science, art, philosophy, or our Christian lives, knowledge and understanding only come when we realize we don’t know something and then set out to change that. It requires us to be active and engaged in our lives. It requires us to not be content with our ignorance, but instead to love God enough to want to understand Him better.

Look at two examples in Scripture of people who were inquisitive and where their inquisitiveness led them:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. (Acts 17:11-12)

The people of Berea listened to the gospel, but they weren’t content to be idle in their learning. Instead, their questions drove them into God’s word daily to see the answers for themselves. As a result, not only does Luke (the writer of Acts) commend these people, but they were driven to repentance and salvation because they desired answers.

Their inquisitiveness led them to deeper Bible study.

And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:29-34)

Here, a man is reading Isaiah but doesn’t fully understand what it’s about. When asked, he responds with honesty: he can’t understand it without someone helping him. Thus, he invites Philip to sit down with him and explain it.

His inquisitiveness led him to discipleship.

Encountering truth, asking questions, then trying to find answers is essential for Christian maturity. It’s how we grow in our own understanding, and it’s how God equips us to not only know and love Him more, but it’s how we’re also able to serve others.

Why is inquisitiveness so difficult for us?

Both the Bereans and the eunuch show a similar pattern. Someone encounters a truth they don’t understand. Rather than saying “Hmm, I wonder what that means” and moving on, they dig deeper. They make learning and understanding a priority.

As I said at the beginning, inquisitiveness is something anyone can have. It has nothing to do with intelligence, skill, or natural talent. However, that doesn’t mean it will come naturally or easily.

Sadly, our culture has conditioned us to be very passive in our lives. We are bombarded with information every day, and many of us have learned to hear things without engaging our minds. We’ve also become spoiled with how easy information is to find, and as a result, we’ve neglected things like study, asking clarifying questions, or thinking through the implications of various truth claims.

This has become a natural part of our Christian lives as well. We read our Bibles or go to church, but we don’t take responsibility for our learning. We want our reading to be quick and simple, and when we face difficulties we just move on without a second thought. We want our teachers to keep things basic, and if they say something difficult we either tune them out or just shrug our shoulders and figure we don’t need to worry about it.

However, recognizing our lack of inquisitiveness gives us an interesting opportunity. Are we content with realizing we prefer to sit back and not dig deeper into things we don’t understand? Does it bother us that we ask questions with little desire to do the work required to find the answer? Realizing a need to be more inquisitive is the first step in developing it, because it drives us to ask: how do I become more inquisitive?

How to develop an inquisitive mind

Remember that the core of becoming inquisitive is simple: ask questions and then go find answers. So here are some ways we can identify weaknesses or struggles in our lives so that we can keep nurturing and developing our own inquisitiveness. The more we exercise these things, the deeper our walk with God will be.

Be intentional

A key aspect to growing in inquisitiveness is being intentional. When we’re listening to someone speak, we need to be actively thinking through what they’re saying and making sure we understand. The same applies to our reading. As we read, we must actively make sure we understand what’s being said, and why the writer is saying it.

Being intentional is our safeguard against being lazy and passive. As soon as there’s something we don’t understand, we can respond by doing what’s necessary to find out.

Stop reading random verses

For many people, confusion starts with how they read the Bible. When we don’t fully understand what the Bible is, we don’t fully understand how to read it. When we read a random verse, often because our Bible reading comes from someone sending us a “verse of the day,” it’s no wonder things don’t always make sense. Reading a random verse in the Bible is like spending 30 seconds watching a movie that has been going for 20 minutes. Bible verses don’t exist on their own, but like that 30 seconds of a movie are part of a larger context. Instead, it’s important to read a book of the Bible from start to finish to get a bigger understanding of what’s being said.

To better understand how to read the Bible, check out this article and podcast episode.

Ask three questions

This is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard for people who want to study their Bible. Even if we’re just reading for 5 minutes every day, God’s word is so filled with truth that we can find plenty of questions that have answers. However, having twenty questions after only reading three verses can get overwhelming, and it’s not very sustainable for long-term reading habits.

Instead, if we want to force ourselves to be intentional while growing an inquisitive mind, we can simply plan to always ask three questions about what we’re reading. For example, if we started reading Ephesians, these verses from the first chapter may stand out to us:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10)

There is so much going on here. We could come up with plenty of questions, and in trying to answer those questions we’d certainly come up with even more. But if we’re simply trying to get something out of our reading time, we need to settle down and force ourselves to only ask three questions.

What might we ask?

What does “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” mean?
How did God predestine us in love?
Why, specifically, do we have redemption through Christ’s blood?

From here, we can pick at least one question we want to better understand. Some questions may really capture our attention and take up days of our lives to learn more about them, while others may be things we find a simple answer for and don’t delve any deeper (for now). However, the important thing is that by noticing a gap in our understanding and pursuing answers, we’ve developed our inquisitiveness.

Don’t settle for easy answers

There’s nothing wrong with being satisfied with an easy answer for some questions. Some things are fairly straightforward, while others are just things we need answered in order to move on to bigger things. However, in this age of Google, we can confuse answers and truth.

Take our first question from the previous section. What does it mean that God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”? Asking Google that question gives me about 38,700 links to click on. I can easily just click on the first one or two search results, read a quick blurb, and be satisfied with the answer.

However, if I don’t know how someone has arrived at that answer, then it’s difficult to accept it as truth. After all, people first need to define what a spiritual blessing is, where the heavenly places are, and how we have those things through Christ. If someone just answers “It means we have the capacity to forgive ourselves so we can be happy,” then we have an easy (and weak) answer, but no foundation for truth.

Inquisitiveness needs truth, not just answers. It wants to know why, not just what. And that will often take more work than a quick Google search.

Challenge things you don’t understand or agree with

It’s tempting to stay quiet rather than admit we don’t understand something. It’s also tempting to nod our heads or change the subject when people say things we disagree with. However, these are excellent opportunities to practice inquisitiveness with our brothers and sisters.

If we don’t understand something, find someone who might. Find a mature Christian who can help us understand the truth. Not only is this a blessing for them to serve another Christian, but it allows us to get live feedback and ask clarifying questions about things we’re still trying to understand.

Likewise, we can talk to people we disagree with about areas of disagreement. Whether it’s about critical things that divide Christians or secondary matters that divide churches, people with different beliefs offer unique opportunities. They allow us to better understand our own beliefs while exposing us to ways that others have arrived at truth.

Grow in humility

Admitting we’re wrong means admitting we don’t have all the answers. Settling for easy answers lets us feel smart, even if we don’t understand why we believe those answers are true. Pride and truth rarely work well together.

Growing an inquisitive mind demands that we remain humble. The more we acknowledge our weaknesses or ignorance, the more opportunities we have to grow. It also allows us to turn to people who have proven themselves to be wise, and if necessary it even drives us toward discipleship. Yet the more we hold on to our pride, the less we’ll know in the long run.

Use tools available to you

I’ve written several articles to help Christians improve their time in God’s word. In addition to articles and podcast episodes discussing specific passages, I’ve also tried to equip people with a better understanding of how to understand these things for themselves. These discussions include:

Some of these are useful on their own while others point you to specific tools that can aid your understanding. Yet for everything I’ve discussed, there are hundreds more options out there.

Owning or reading these things won’t do anything on their own. However, they are incredibly useful tools for anyone with an inquisitive mind and a desire to satisfy it. Mature and knowledgeable Christians have dedicated their lives to creating tools that help us answer and understand questions that come up during our reading. And while one person’s words don’t replace God’s word, they will bring clarity.

Patience and persistence

Inquisitiveness is for everyone. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it because it will deepen our walk with Christ. There will be plenty of moments where we’re frustrated, embarrassed, or completely wrong about things. Expect it and it will be harder to be surprised when it happens. Be patient and realize it not only shows our human limitations, but also how vast and incredible our God is.

Inquisitiveness is a lifestyle. It’s a way of living that isn’t content to just coast through life, but instead to understand the truth we want to follow. We will never arrive at an endpoint in our learning, but that also means we’ll never exhaust the riches of God’s word.