Book Review: How to Read the Bible by Charles Spurgeon

The cover image for this title was taken from its Audible buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

In this case, I need to provide some context. Spurgeon is an often quoted pastor in my church. I’d been meaning ot read some of his work, so I scanned Audible until I found something by him I was especially interested in. Then I got in the car the next day and hit play, only to find out it was a transcript of a 40-minute sermon.

I’m not in any way against sermons. I actually love them. The issue is I was looking for a deep-dive, Biblically driven book, and I inattentively found this instead. So I’d advise anyone considering works by Spurgeon to pay close attention to what they find just to be sure it’s what they’re looking for in the moment.

The other thing that saddened me a bit was where I wanted more of a how, Spurgeon invested most of his sermon to the question of, “What mindset should one have while reading.”

This image was taken from the Christian Hall of Fame of Canton Baptist Temple website in an attempt to represent Spurgeon. This caption is a credit to where the image came from but does not necessarily endorse the site or its teaching as I haven’t studied their site much.

That’s a very important question to address. While I believe that even scanning the words of the page the way one reads a newspaper is of value, if one wishes to study the Bible, that individual must come to it with a desire to be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

This sermon is a powerful motivating tool for those who either may need some guidance as to the mindset one should have while reading the Bible and the value that mindset gives a reader. I think I (vaguely) remember one tidbit, but I struggle to recall it specifically because it was already on my list of things to try.

I’ve since picked up another (actual) book by Spurgeon to study his perspective more deeply, and I’m enjoying it thus far.

What I did appreciate was the chance to listen to a sermon and hear a perspective from a man my church (as well as others) deeply respects (an inference I make by how often he’s quoted in my own pastor’s sermons). As nice as that was, I’m much more excited to dig a little more deeply into his theology and teaching than a single sermon can possibly account for.

Thanks for reading,

Matt